We talk also of Youtuber Luke Ford, and the careful consideration of his own narcissism that has accompanied his alt-right blogging every step of the way. Robert recalls one particular anecdote about Luke walking the streets of Beverly Hills after becoming a blogger thinking pompously to himself “there’s a new Sheriff in town!”. Robert says this is something he can relate to; that when he walks around after recording a particularly good podcast, he feels as if he is more worthy of respect. I say that I too can relate to this mindset, and that it reminds me of the basic ambivalence I have about all of this blogging, political edge-o-sphere stuff.
Are we highly intelligent critics of society whose ideas can ultimately ameliorate it, and promote civilizational flourishing? Or are we just a bunch of men and boy’s who cannot find the status we crave in real life and so take to the internet to seek it out? addicts going again and again to a well of insubstantial narcissistic supply, entering virtual spaces in which we, and our ideas, are afforded more power, and dreaming up real worlds in which we could be afforded same. The conclusion I have reached, I say to Robert, is that we are not intrinsically one thing or the other– that for now we could be described in either way, and that what we ultimately will be has not yet been revealed.
History is written by the victors, I continue. If we win, we will have always been intrepid ideological and cultural travelers to a new promised land. If we lose, then its all just been a maladaptive daydream–a power fantasy– and we really were just sad boys jerking off to hentai in our basements the whole time. It’s a harsh uncertainty that I bet even Richard Spencer grapples with from time to time.
