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Culture War Roundup for the week of March 4, 2024

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So others have written the obvious reactions to this poll (including pointing out that the stats are massaged). But to go a bit lateral: a common take I hear from the dissident right is that the West declined into tyranny as the franchise expanded. I often see tweet threads from @KulakRevolt implying that the cause of modern ills is that people without a fixed interest in the system started getting a say in its regulation. In other words, they side with the Grandees in the Putney Debates.

What the hell happened to European civilization? Getting rid of Aristocracy was a fatal mistake. Whether its democracy or communism the landless have no business in the governance of the land. (link)

This idea sounds plausible on its own, but it co-exists in the DR with a ravenous hatred of "elites" and "globalists". How does that make any sense? For all its faults, this poll does expose a fundamental truth: ideas like racial/gender quotas and open borders are coming from the top of society, the "aristocrats", not the middle. If you were to limit the franchise to the modern equivalent of the Second Estate, a far-left social and economic planning program would be implemented by Thursday.

This is an interesting analysis of the dissident right, but keep in mind that this poll wasn't created by or for the dissident right -- the authors of it have never heard of them and would hate them if they had.

There's the mainstream right, that wants low taxes, libertarian policy, and military might. That's the "GOP Establishment," or as their enemies call them, "RINOs." There's the nationalist right, that wants more manufacturing and less foreign wars. That's the "Trumpist" right, or as their enemies call them, "MAGA Republicans." Then, and only then, there's the dissident right, that wants actual racism. That's the extremely-online version that doesn't exist among conservatives in person. Maybe at those weird right-wing parties in New York, but if you think "people at New York parties" are representative of the right, I'm prepared to offer you a sweetheart deal for the Brooklyn Bridge. I disagree with him on how far he takes it, but I agree with @HlynkaCG totally that the identitarian right in this sense is more of a sect of dissident blue tribers than anything truly red tribe. And I say this as a born and raised red triber from Jesusland (and, if I'm being honest, a pretty hardcore nationalist rightist despite my misgivings about Trump personally).

This poll was created by the mainstream right, with occasional nods to concerns of the nationalist right. The dissident right isn't even on their radar.

Slightly more subtle than that. The meme driving this study is "the elites screwing you over are schoolteachers in Manhattan, not the multimillionaire CEO who times your toilet breaks." This is a meme that the GOPe uses to keep the mainstream right and the nationalist right in the same tent - Oliver Anthony and his supporters in the country are perfectly happy hating both sneering Manhattanites and arsehole bosses, so to get him to vote for the bosses' candidate requires advanced lying skills. (Getting Oliver Anthony to vote for the Manhattanites' candidate would also require advanced lying skills, which the Dem establishment don't have.)

My multimillionaire CEO isn't timing my toilet breaks, so the other group is a much greater problem. Timed toilet breaks are also a much easier thing for an individual to solve: if you don't want your toilet breaks timed, don't work for Bezos or McMillon.

Unless you live in NY yourself, ordinary middle-class Manhattanites are not the people screwing you over either. It sounds like the people who are screwing you over mostly live in places like Fairfax County VA, Palo Alto, and the deep blue tony suburbs of your State capital. According to Rasmussen's somewhat curious definition, none of those people are elite.

If you don't want to be bothered by Manhattan schoolteachers sneering at you, stop reading their tweets.

According to Rasmussen's somewhat curious definition, none of those people are elite.

What's your definition of elite?

If you don't want to be bothered by Manhattan schoolteachers sneering at you, stop reading their tweets.

Wait, you think it's the schoolteachers' tweets that people have a problem with?

This idea sounds plausible on its own

Does it? That seems like it doesn't pass the smell test to me. The correlation between things like personal liberty + economic prosperity and how aristocratic a given society was/is seems quite negative. If nothing else, contrast the US or Britain (no/vestigial aristocracy) with the Russian Empire (deeply aristocratic and reactionary, also bringing up the rear in terms of economic development and personal liberty). Nor would we expect aristocratic societies to do well on this front - landowning elites are primarily concern with the extraction of land rents and the preservation of their privileges. A merchant class threatens their power base and letting a peasant sue his lord undermines their elite status.

it co-exists in the DR with a ravenous hatred of "elites" and "globalists". How does that make any sense?

They see themselves as temporarily embarrassed dukes.

It's pretty funny that Kulak is using a kitschy art station work from 2019 to show how gloriovs France was 200 years ago. It's simulacrum on simulacrum.

And how can we tell it was glorious? The state's jackbooted thugs wore cool hats!

If you were to limit the franchise to the modern equivalent of the Second Estate, a far-left social and economic planning program would be implemented by Thursday.

And if you had limited the franchise to the modern equivalent of what the founders meant by "white men" with the naturalization act of 1792, a far-right social and economic planning program would be implemented by Wednesday.