Quick Take: Too Big to Countersignal

I’m eating a lot of crow right now regarding Nick Fuentes. I assumed after multiple previous allies dunking on him, the failed AFPAC conferences, the Ye debacle, and the strange flip-flopping over Trump, the guy would slowly descend into irrelevance. It never happened, and his fans became more strident as he got invited to larger and larger podcasts. Then the breakthrough Tucker Carlson interview happened this week. You could hear screeching from the usual pundits as far as Tanzania. Then there was the shocking statement from The Heritage Foundation, once the cuckiest of the conservative philanthropic blob, telling the haters to get bent. It’s clear I was totally wrong. The guy’s popularity has only increased and has fully entered the public consciousness. He is a big player in the pundit circles, not a fringe side-show.

There are countless statements over the years you could attack the guy with, but that’s irrelevant now. He has the same Teflon quality Donald Trump has, and the Tucker interviewed showed why. For all his faults, he is an entertaining guy. While a showman, he is also sincere. The backstory he told in the interview made perfect sense and gave another spotlight into the odious Daily Wire crowd and their tentacles influencing every aspect of conservative discourse, especially regarding the little hats. Those experiences hurt him deeply, and laid bare the nasty, backstabbing world of Conservative Inc.

For those of us who dislike that guy, we’re in a lousy situation. We could go to great lengths about his understanding of women being skewed, even if his understanding of current social pathologies regarding gender relations is often spot on. We could talk about his incredibly obnoxious followers on social media, including their disgraceful behavior to Andrew Torba of Gab fame after he gave them a generous donation. We could talk about the learned helplessness he fosters on his listeners, getting a cathartic hit by slamming their enemies online while doing nothing do improve their lot. All we’ll get for our troubles is being called a Jew.

I don’t think Fuentes is a fed, though I wouldn’t doubt he has had some “encouragement” from federal agencies to say or do certain things. He’s largely his own man, and likely the most precarious time of his life regarding the Feds are behind him. The narcotic of celebrity is another story. Also, given his rapid weight gain, his ability to live healthily in the offline space is questionable. Still, I don’t think we’ll see him crash out, and he’s far past the point where anyone can cancel him. Even if the entire right-wing sphere got together in the strangest mix of BAPists, Trads, Shitposters, Con-Inc ghouls, and milquetoast moderates ever seen and, in a flagrant display of total hypocrisy, ran a full court press to cancel Nick, they would lose. He has successfully navigated countless podcasts and hostile interviews from every age group and has come out stronger. We’re stuck with him, likely for a long time.

Fuentes is the voice of disaffected Zoomers. They’re a cohort I, as an older millennial and father of gen-Alpha children, have little insight into. Being more online and enmeshed in meme culture than most, I might have a small leg up on most older generations, but their communication style is becoming increasingly indecipherable, and that’s fine. I’m fine not being “with it” regarding youth culture. Most of us here are not part of that cohort, and any rants against Nick have the same effect as listening to out-of-touch scolds they’ve been tormented with their entire lives.

I will say that while I was wrong about his long-term popularity, he’s still a non-entity with regards to any sort of social or political change. His angry and disaffected fans will remain angry and disaffected. The fans who have their lives together will remain on the course. Those who are Trump fans will remain Trump fans regardless of his Nick’s odd grandstanding. He hasn’t coined any interesting new phrases into the public consciousness, developed any real infrastructure, or formed any alliances that didn’t eventually crash and burn. He has the same impact as someone like Bill O’Reilly, well known but still only a political entertainer.

Is this the time to employ the “just ignore him and he’ll go away” mindset? Granted, even if this worked in the usual childhood context it’s brought up in (it doesn’t), there’s no ignoring him. Your Zoomer cousin is going to send you Fuentes clips. Your young mutuals are listening to his every word. Many of his fans will call you a Jew for having a drink of water. It’s unavoidable. He’s like the co-worker who wastes time in meetings with amusing long-winded stories everyone seems to eat up. He’s the obnoxious dog your kid adores even though he pisses on the rug. He’s the drunken uncle you still need to invite to family gatherings. He’ll continue to be an annoyance to be navigated.

I applaud the young man for his success. Unfortunately, though he can entertain, he has nothing to offer those trying to build and navigate the future world. The minute he disappears, for whatever reason, someone else will fill the void. Unlike Kirk, who built a conservative empire that outlasted his murder, Nick will be forgotten as fast as a muckraking magazine that goes out of business. The best I can say is he’s not an odious subversive like the Daily Wire snakes, not pilfering money from old fogies like The Lincoln Project, and lacks the obnoxious pretentiousness of The National Review. At least he’s somewhat real.

Then again, maybe I just don’t get it. Maybe Nick will become one of the most consequential figures of this era. If so, I’ll gladly eat a second heaping portion of crow.