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Culture War Roundup for the week of November 13, 2023

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But today, on Twitter, I saw Charlie Kirk (rightfully) defending Elon Musks's statements on Da Jooze. In the replies, someone pointed out that over a month ago, he interviewed Steve Sailer on his podcast.

For one thing, I'm shocked that I didn't hear about this immediately when it happened. But also, HOW did it happen? Kirk's organization was blacklisting people who got near Unz or VDare.. heck, people who just admitted to reading them! He's part of Con Inc! Now he's okay with it? What changed? How did this happen? I thought the groypers lost! Was this a downstream effect of Musk taking over Twitter? How the heck???

It's called a pivot, reading the room, going with the currents, etc.. Kirk realizes that if Elon and Tucker are the bellwethers of post-Covid conservativism, he ought to imitate that.

This year, AFPAC died because Fuentes lost all his fans. Even the Kanye West bump didn't save him.

really? isn't he popular on telegram and video still?

Kirk realizes that if Elon and Tucker are the bellwethers of post-Covid conservativism

Tucker sure, but fwiw I’ve never been convinced that Elon genuinely views himself as part of “conservativism” or even more broadly “the right”.

I would agree there’s been some definite shift in his public persona, where he seems to have pivoted from the “real life Tony Stark” to an almost parody level Chud Inc. persona. My best guess and working theory here is the shift is more social than political. As it nearly coincides with his move Texas and when he first started appearing on Joe Rogan, displaying a public interest in firearms, smokers, and all the other stereotypical interests of a Texas Chud type person r rather than a Silicon Valley scion.