Monsieur writes: Mr. Ford,
I went to a French restaurant to get dinner. Incredibly dense scene to unpack.
You had this young white woman, blonde and kinda pudgy, with a Valley Girl accent. I was immediately bothered by that because of my own biases – the beautiful people are unaccented. She was talking about her work as a technical specialist and how she was underpaid, overworked, and unappreciated by Megacorp. For years, she hasn’t gotten a real raise. These are the people that keep the American industrial juggernaut going, and we treat them like garbage. That was the first thought.
The second thought was that she must probably be liberal. She almost assuredly despises Trump. She casually mentioned her friends in other countries. Scoffed disdainfully about some “Christian” “nerd”. She is an urban white woman. She smokes weed. That’s false consciousness. It amazes me that prole women get college degrees and then imagine themselves elite even though they’re blue collar workers. The Right rightly attacks elites, but they often ignore middle class people with this false consciousness. And I find these tend to be the most hateful and spiteful. Is anyone more resentful of heritage America than those who escape it for the Metropole? It’s like the lowborn cuckservatives. They hate their origin to distance themselves psychologically, I think. I see this with a few other middle class white women I’ve met too, and it baffles me.
Third, they were talking with such awe and reverence about some whale documentary. They gushed about how good the “science” was. Luke, it’s a frigging edutainment show! They use “science” as their religion. They’re so worshipful of these experts and if you ever question them, you’re mocked as ignorant. Bah. These scientists are my peers, not gods! I think people of average and high neuroticism need a religion to structure their lives, and that this conflation of the search for knowledge with moral purpose is toxic.
Finally, they sounded so snobby. This topic also came up in First Class – the middle class these days is so damned snobby. They look down on McDonald’s and Olive Garden breadsticks. What kind of person can’t enjoy a simple burger? And they talk down to people. I believe in hierarchy, but in any reasonable hierarchy, I think I should rank higher than these factorywomen, no offense to the blue collars… some people, Luke, who do they think they are? This other middle class woman I know was bragging about her high standard of living (and how much higher it was than mine). Lady, I make several times what you do!
Bunch of snobs. Women seem essentially prone to having a college degree go to their heads. It’s crazy.
* Dissident Right in real life and privilege. Had a lovely conversation with two middle class people. They started calling Trump a buffoon, believing the wall was a sham, who bashed Americans as provincial and arrogant, and probably other things besides. I said to not judge America so harshly – it has such a bad rep because even its working class can travel, but that just shows HOW RICH it is. I took the migrant labor argument and smashed it – the real problem is Americans not respecting the dignity of ALL WORK. Americans used to pick fruit too. Convinced them that the wall was sound both to deter low hanging fruit and as a *symbol*. Got buy in for freedom of association by framing it as the essentially republican tradition of local self-governance. Got buy-in for UBI. Got buy-in for new traditionalism. In one and a half hours, I got buy in for every important Dissident Right position.
I call it the Kyle strategy. Be an elite with impeccable optics and therefore real dignitas. Then speak with radical love and inclusion, always framing things with concern for ordinary Americans and the little guy.
Dissident politics isn’t so taboo, Luke. You can even stream it from a McDonald’s. 😉
Winning hearts and minds. But no Spencers. Having a divorcee who looks unstable, terribly bad. Optics is not about cucking on position, this is what chat misunderstands. It is about acting with grace and DIGNITAS.
People want to follow elites. I just had to convince them I was sincere and not like the distrusted and hated media. That’s an easy wedge that should be hammered at every turn.
* First of all, I’d really like to thank you for your warm hospitality in inviting me. You’ve got some really great people and you’re doing great work.
I especially want to write to you because I saw your follow up video talking about “Youtube not sending their best” and your concerns about inculcating or potentially harboring a community of the mentally ill. I understand that dissident politics attracts a lot of fucking weirdos.
I hope I do not count among the undesirables you’d like to keep out.
But people like Kyle and I have almost nothing to gain from this sort of thing, and everything to lose. Kyle is a brave enough man to show his face and dedicate himself to truth, not fortune, and I’m not, of course. But Kyle and the Kyles of the world are connected. And it’s spaces like these, intellectual dissidence, where young elites can have their minds changed.
And more than that, these online communities are the town squares of tomorrow. I fundamentally disagree with that book guy’s assertion that the internet is unhealthy. I think the online world is building a new sense of solidarity and community and bringing people together.
The fringe may be unstable, but it has lots of exciting ideas, and the status quo is untenable.
