I thought it was April Fools again, the first few paragraphs.
This is why I like Dudley's New Right formulation, and the Librarian's Ascendant. It is a matter of perspective, dissident no longer speaks to the times. We take over the culture or we will be overrun.
It is a tricky dance. Notes has reduced attention spans here. It is a solid piece speaking directly to what is needed on the right. Keep repeating it creatively.
It's a beautiful thought. Rooms full of anons writing polite, pseudo academic sounding papers, conducting double blind research, giving grants to people actually DOING stuff and becoming a new "expert class".
It is amazing the amount of brainpower that exists in anon spaces, and they were very instrumental in my own education, but man, most of them haven't done anything.
Jonah Goldberg was effectively my entryway to conservative politics. Though I was never what you’d call liberal, it’s as you say, he was respectable enough that my liberal friends were not aghast that I’d cite him. Then he lost his mind. He became obsessed with respectability over all else and, ironically, spends all his free time in the mud on X now. All of which is to say, I agree completely.
I enjoyed his writing for NR back in the day and especially his coining of “cheese eating surrender monkeys” for the French. Then, as you wrote, he lost his mind when Trump became the Republican nominee for president and he decided to become the “muh, principles” guy and vote third party. I dropped my NR subscription when they published the “Against Trump” issue.
I was very much the kind of person who thought that if we just explained ourselves clearly, we can win people over. That changed abruptly in 2016. On one side, Trump didn’t have to carefully structure his sentences to the pleasure of pundits to win over masses of people quickly. On the other side, you had most of the principles set abandon that idea overnight and jumping in the mud with unconsidered arguments, clumsy insults, and often plain profanity. What an eye-opener.
I really like this piece for the most part. But I do disagree somewhat on your position regarding populism. Populism arises when political circumstances incentive it. Think of it like a wave. There are little waves that gently lap the coast making almost imperceptible changes. There are tsunamis which produce radical, life-altering change. We do not yet know which MAGA will be. And while I recognize, understand, and respect your call for the evolution of the MAGA voices into a more palatable form to do so might well reduce the movement to a gently lapping wave. And IMO that would be a tragic waste of energy. Meaningful change will elevating people to power and influence who do not abide by the artificial norms of civility of the post-WWII era. Or maybe more accurately the norms of civility that were necessary un the immediate aftermath of WWII but that I the past several decades have morphed into standards both destructive to the American populace and impossible to maintain. ImBecause if MAGA can succeed in throwing off that burden we will be able to return to the true American ideals envisioned by the founders.
I thought it was April Fools again, the first few paragraphs.
This is why I like Dudley's New Right formulation, and the Librarian's Ascendant. It is a matter of perspective, dissident no longer speaks to the times. We take over the culture or we will be overrun.
Given the low engagement, I am wondering if the first couple paragraphs confused people and they dropped.
Or just could have been a weak essay. In any case, I had fun writing it.
It is a tricky dance. Notes has reduced attention spans here. It is a solid piece speaking directly to what is needed on the right. Keep repeating it creatively.
It's a beautiful thought. Rooms full of anons writing polite, pseudo academic sounding papers, conducting double blind research, giving grants to people actually DOING stuff and becoming a new "expert class".
It is amazing the amount of brainpower that exists in anon spaces, and they were very instrumental in my own education, but man, most of them haven't done anything.
Jonah Goldberg was effectively my entryway to conservative politics. Though I was never what you’d call liberal, it’s as you say, he was respectable enough that my liberal friends were not aghast that I’d cite him. Then he lost his mind. He became obsessed with respectability over all else and, ironically, spends all his free time in the mud on X now. All of which is to say, I agree completely.
I enjoyed his writing for NR back in the day and especially his coining of “cheese eating surrender monkeys” for the French. Then, as you wrote, he lost his mind when Trump became the Republican nominee for president and he decided to become the “muh, principles” guy and vote third party. I dropped my NR subscription when they published the “Against Trump” issue.
I was very much the kind of person who thought that if we just explained ourselves clearly, we can win people over. That changed abruptly in 2016. On one side, Trump didn’t have to carefully structure his sentences to the pleasure of pundits to win over masses of people quickly. On the other side, you had most of the principles set abandon that idea overnight and jumping in the mud with unconsidered arguments, clumsy insults, and often plain profanity. What an eye-opener.
I really like this piece for the most part. But I do disagree somewhat on your position regarding populism. Populism arises when political circumstances incentive it. Think of it like a wave. There are little waves that gently lap the coast making almost imperceptible changes. There are tsunamis which produce radical, life-altering change. We do not yet know which MAGA will be. And while I recognize, understand, and respect your call for the evolution of the MAGA voices into a more palatable form to do so might well reduce the movement to a gently lapping wave. And IMO that would be a tragic waste of energy. Meaningful change will elevating people to power and influence who do not abide by the artificial norms of civility of the post-WWII era. Or maybe more accurately the norms of civility that were necessary un the immediate aftermath of WWII but that I the past several decades have morphed into standards both destructive to the American populace and impossible to maintain. ImBecause if MAGA can succeed in throwing off that burden we will be able to return to the true American ideals envisioned by the founders.