The 1585

The 1585

A consortium of sociopolitical philosophers and satirists, The 1585 produces essays on a wide range of topics, seeming to gravitate towards the most controversial issues possible. Though the tracts rely heavily on complex flights of logic, often deliberately to the point of showboating or explicit boastfulness, they also regularly incorporate allusions to pop culture (e.g., rock music, The Simpsons), sometimes elaborately.

The two favorite targets of the site, by a wide margin, are religion and political correctness, usually in the form of 1990s-style academic feminism. In essays dealing with this last subject in particular, the writers demonstrate the strong influence of renegade feminist Camille Paglia on their work. Typically, a 1585 essay paints right-wingers as illogical religious fanatics and the far-left as weak-willed relativists woefully inequipped to efficiently oppose the former. The fact that the site is vitriolically critical of both ends of the political spectrum lends it its name, which is shorthand for "15% Conservative, 85% Liberal." The site also places a strong emphasis on sexual libertinism, even going so far as to feature sexy photos of female fans wearing 1585 merchandise.

Primarily, The 1585 is concerned with a perceived "War on Smart People" being waged in American culture by both political extremes--on the right in the form of religious dogma, and on the left in terms of egalitarian deconstructionism. Their essays frequently boil issues down to a simple matter of "smart people" versus "dumb people," only half-jokingly. The motto at the top of their homepage reads "Because stupid people are too mean, and smart people aren't mean enough," and the Latin motto potentia sine odium ("Strength without hatred") would seem to refer to their un-P.C. belief that ambition and self-aggrandizement can move humanity forward if practiced judiciously by gifted individuals (indicating a debt to the philosophy of Nietzsche).

The "real-life" identities of the operators of The 1585 are not known, nor is the number of people involved in the production of the site's content. Thus far, the only members identified by name are Lord High Editor Sexo Grammaticus and Baroness Sexa Rubelucia, who are obviously using pseudonyms. Though both Grammaticus and Rubelucia have produced essays written in the first-person singular, the bulk of the site's content is written in the first-person plural ("we"), with no particular author named or given primacy.

Recently, there has been cooperation between The 1585 and the Rational Response Squad, with Grammaticus being named an RRS V.I.P. Several 1585 essays dealing with religion have been posted on the RRS site as well.

External Links

The 1585's Homepage: The1585.com