Matt Rowan
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veryrealbatman.bsky.social
Matt Rowan
@veryrealbatman.bsky.social
1.6K followers 790 following 6.5K posts
Dad, teacher, editor, student of the history of autocracy, anti-fascist, “Nazis ain’t got no humanity,” and author of HOW THE MOON WORKS. Stories in @havehashad.com, @bluestemmag.bsky.social, @barrelhouse.bsky.social, @vol1brooklyn.bsky.social, etc.
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veryrealbatman.bsky.social
We are here:
Jesse Plemons playing a soldier in the film Civil War (2024), interrogating people by asking, “what kind of American are you?”
October 25, 2025 at 5:31 PM
veryrealbatman.bsky.social
Any time!
Mr. Friend waving and saying you can always trust me.
October 14, 2025 at 10:22 PM
veryrealbatman.bsky.social
There’s always a dril post
@dril post that reads: go ahead. keep screaming "Shut The Fuck Up " at me. it only makes my opinions Worse
October 12, 2025 at 8:28 PM
veryrealbatman.bsky.social
From The Onion, headline reads: “Heartbreaking: The Worst Person You Know Just Made A Great Point 2/05/18 11:18am Filed to: WOW”
September 2, 2025 at 7:32 AM
veryrealbatman.bsky.social
Dark subject matter but I think if there’s one book that really encapsulates America’s race issues it’s Hitler’s American Model by James Q Whitman:
Cover of Hitler’s American Model by James Q. Whitman
August 2, 2025 at 6:54 PM
veryrealbatman.bsky.social
More about America’s contribution to fascism are present in Robert O. Paxton’s work. I wrote about it and quoted him extensively:
America has an unavoidably fascist past. In his authoritative book on the subject, The Anatomy of Fascism, Paxton argues fascist ideology owes a great debt to American racism and the traditions of the emergent, postbellum Ku Klux Klan: “It may be that the earliest phenomenon that can be functionally related to fascism is American: the Ku Klux Klan. Just after the Civil War some Confederate officers, fearing the vote given to African Americans in 1867 by the Radical Reconstructionists, set up a militia to restore an overturned social order. The Klan constituted an alternate civic authority, parallel to the legal state, which, in the eyes of the Klan’s founders, no longer defended their communities legitimate interests. By adopting a uniform (white robe and hood), as well as by their conviction that violence was justified in the cause of their group’s destiny, the first version of the Klan in the defeated American South was arguably a remarkable preview of the way fascist movements were to function in interwar Europe.”
July 27, 2025 at 9:42 PM
veryrealbatman.bsky.social
I’ve made this one a core part of my US History course since I first read it in 2018. Particularly the passage on blood law and how even the Nazis felt certain aspects of American race law went too far.
Cover of the book Hitler’s American Model by James Q. Whitman
July 27, 2025 at 9:02 PM
veryrealbatman.bsky.social
To wit:
Excerpt from Backing Hitler by Robert Gellately: Historian Götz Aly among others has wondered what would have happened if there had been more vocal protests, and suggests that negative responses might have slowed down 'euthanasia', and perhaps also hindered the genocide that began in 1941. He shows with considerable plausibility, that the secrecy surrounding the killings was never intended to keep all information from leaking out. That the programme was officially a 'se-cret Reich matter', however, 'gave the public and those who indirectly shared in the crime the opportunity to give their tacit consent, 110 As it was, he continues, most relatives did not want to know too much, and numerous German families were prepared to accept the murder of their closest relatives without protest, even with approval. By so doing, they created the psychological conditions for the genocidal policies carried out in the years to come. If people did not protest even when their relatives were murdered, they could hardly be expected to object to the murder of Poles, Jews, and Russians.
July 19, 2025 at 4:27 AM
veryrealbatman.bsky.social
Hannah Arendt, despite her many & significant failings, had a fantastic sense of Glonzo.
An excerpt from Hannah Arendt’s Crises of the Republic. It underscores the differences between convincing people to agree with you politically using facts vs convincing people through the use of lies: "Hence, when we talk about lying, and especially about lying among acting men, let us remember that the lie did not creep into politics by some accident of human sinfulness. Moral outrage, for this reason alone, is not likely to make it disappear. The deliberate falsehood deals with contingent facts; that is, with matters that carry no inherent truth within themselves, no necessity to be as they are. Factual truths are never compellingly true. The historian knows how vulnerable is the whole texture of facts in which we spend our daily life; it is always in danger of being perforated by single lies or torn to shreds by the organized lying of groups, nations, or classes, or denied and distorted, often carefully covered up by reams of falsehoods or simply allowed to fall into oblivion. Facts need testimony to be remembered and trustworthy witnesses to be established in order to find a secure dwelling place in the domain of human affairs. "Lies are often much more plausible, more appealing to reason, than reality, since the liar has the great advantage of knowing beforehand what the audience wishes or expects to hear. He has prepared his story for public consumption with a careful eye to making it credible, whereas reality has the disconcerting habit of confronting us with the unexpected, for which we were not prepared."
July 18, 2025 at 5:48 PM
veryrealbatman.bsky.social
I feel it’s bad for this regime that there are people out protesting in Culver City on a Thursday evening.
Hundreds of people in Culver City protesting ICE and the Trump regime.
July 18, 2025 at 12:53 AM
veryrealbatman.bsky.social
That’s how you do it.
A Tesla with a large sticker on the back that reads in all-cap red letters: “EAT A DICK ELON.”
July 13, 2025 at 9:40 PM
veryrealbatman.bsky.social
Bringing to mind Kendrick Lamar’s verse in “Pray for Me” with The Weeknd.
Verse from Kendrick Lamar and The Weeknd’s “Pray for Me” : I fight the world, I fight you, I fight myself I fight God, just tell me how many burdens left I fight pain and hurricanes, today I wept I'm tryna fight back tears, flood on my doorsteps Life a livin' hell, puddles of blood in the streets Shooters on top of the building, government aid ain't relief Earthquake, the body drop, the ground breaks The poor run with smoke lungs and Scarface Who need a hero? (Hero) You need a hero, look in the mirror, there go your hero Who on the front lines at ground zero? (Hero) My heart don't skip a beat, even when hard times bumps the needle Mass destruction and mass corruption The souls are sufferin' men Clutchin' on deaf ears again, rapture is comin' It's all prophecy and if I gotta be sacrificed for the greater good Then that's what it gotta be
July 12, 2025 at 5:59 PM
veryrealbatman.bsky.social
This is one of mine:
'80s guy in Futurama saying, "I am proud to be the shepherd of this herd of sharks."
July 11, 2025 at 6:24 AM
veryrealbatman.bsky.social
Hey, did you paint my stupid cyber truck?

Yeah boss, real shitty just like you asked.
A cyber truck with an absolutely garbage rusty looking paint job.
July 11, 2025 at 12:03 AM
veryrealbatman.bsky.social
The Board is saying there is no Epstein Client list.
Sydney Cole Alexander playing Natalie Kalen in the show Severance. Kalen is standing in front of a barren wall wearing a headset and smiling corporately.
July 10, 2025 at 6:11 PM
veryrealbatman.bsky.social
I repeat this part of Winston Churchill's antifascist speech like a mantra in my head over and over again:
“We shall go on to the end. We shall fight in France, we shall fight on the seas and oceans, we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air, we shall defend our island, whatever the cost may be. We shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender.” - Winston Churchill
July 8, 2025 at 7:40 PM
veryrealbatman.bsky.social
I'm no fan of Sam Houston. I think these words are relevant, though. For me, it's in the metaphor of cold climate. No one on the rational side of our contemporary conflict with MAGA wants violence, but it's mistaken to think that's b/c we're cowards. Quite the opposite. We know the cost of violence.
Quoted text reads: "Let me tell you what is coming. After the sacrifice of countless millions of treasure and hundreds of thousands of lives you may win Southern independence, but I doubt it. The North is determined to preserve this Union. They are not a fiery, impulsive people as you are, for they live in colder climates. But when they begin to move in a given direction, they move with the steady momentum and perseverance of a mighty avalanche." ~ SAM HOUSTON
July 8, 2025 at 7:20 PM
veryrealbatman.bsky.social
Kurt Russell as Stephen "Bull" McCaffrey in the 1991 film Backdraft, watching as his brother fights a fire like a man possessed, and remarks, "Look at him...That's my brother, goddammit!"
July 7, 2025 at 5:39 PM
veryrealbatman.bsky.social
Like MAGA loves Trump as fascists do, but that’s a significant minority of the country. Anyway, nothing good about this but continue fighting it fearlessly, all. It matters. Take a look at the following excerpt from Backing Hitler by Robert Gellately if you doubt that:
Excerpt from Backing Hitler by Robert Gellately: Historian Götz Aly among others has wondered what would have happened if there had been more vocal protests, and suggests that negative responses might have slowed down 'euthanasia', and perhaps also hindered the genocide that began in 1941. He shows with considerable plausibility, that the secrecy surrounding the killings was never intended to keep all information from leaking out. That the programme was officially a 'se-cret Reich matter', however, 'gave the public and those who indirectly shared in the crime the opportunity to give their tacit consent, 110 As it was, he continues, most relatives did not want to know too much, and numerous German families were prepared to accept the murder of their closest relatives without protest, even with approval. By so doing, they created the psychological conditions for the genocidal policies carried out in the years to come. If people did not protest even when their relatives were murdered, they could hardly be expected to object to the murder Poles, Jews, and Russians.
July 7, 2025 at 4:48 AM
veryrealbatman.bsky.social
You mean to tell me this is not the full effect of reading The War of the Worlds?
ChatGPT description of The War of the Worlds: The War of the Worlds by H.G. Wells is a classic science fiction novel first published in 1898. Here's a concise summary: Summary: Setting: Late 19th-century England, primarily around London. Plot: The novel follows an unnamed narrator who witnesses the invasion of Earth by Martians. The aliens arrive in giant cylinders that land near Woking, Surrey. Emerging from these are towering tripod machines armed with heat-rays and poisonous black smoke. The Martians begin a systematic destruction of human civilization. The British military proves helpless against their superior technology. As society collapses, the narrator struggles to survive, encountering panic-stricken civilians, a fanatical curate, and a disillusioned artilleryman. Ultimately, the Martians are defeated not by human effort but by Earth’s smallest life forms—bacteria—to which the Martians have no immunity.
July 6, 2025 at 11:18 PM
veryrealbatman.bsky.social
Definitely. This passage from Robert Gellately’s Backing Hitler feels particularly relevant on that score:
Text from Backing Hitler by Robert Gellately: Historian Götz Aly among others has wondered what would have happened if there had been more vocal protests, and suggests that negative responses might have slowed down 'euthanasia', and perhaps also hindered the genocide that began in 1941. He shows with considerable plausibility, that the secrecy surrounding the killings was never intended to keep all information from leaking out. That the programme was officially a 'se-cret Reich matter', however, 'gave the public and those who indirectly shared in the crime the opportunity to give their tacit consent, 110 As it was, he continues, most relatives did not want to know too much, and numerous German families were prepared to accept the murder of their closest relatives without protest, even with approval. By so doing, they created the psychological conditions for the genocidal policies carried out in the years to come.
June 28, 2025 at 11:24 PM
veryrealbatman.bsky.social
Me all the time now.
Nathan Fielder famously enjoying a Mets game while looking remarkably uncouth and unhappy.
June 27, 2025 at 6:48 PM
veryrealbatman.bsky.social
Co-signed
A sign on a plant border near a sidewalk that reads: Obstruct ICE at every opportunity.
June 24, 2025 at 11:39 PM
veryrealbatman.bsky.social
I think people should know who the genocide apologists are:
Text reads: Eli Sennesh replied 4m ago They are not, in fact, actively committing genocide, as evidenced by the fact that the court case against them on such charges is going nowhere and growing weaker by the month.
June 24, 2025 at 7:02 PM
veryrealbatman.bsky.social
Wish Democratic leadership would just watch the first couple of episodes of season 1 of Andor:
Quote from Karis Nemik in Andor saying: "The pace of repression outstrips our ability to understand it. And that is the real trick of the Imperial thought machine. It's easier to hide behind 40 atrocities than a single incident."
June 18, 2025 at 6:18 PM