A surprising number of self-described right wing writers think that conservatives are not intelligent enough to govern themselves. The argument goes like this:
A welcome counterweight to northeastern dominance is the growth of the Sunbelt. This long term trend really kicked into gear after 2020 and building a truly alternative system in Texas/Florida is key.
I think the push for immigration is largely about trying to neutralize this. California once represented an alternative power block, now it’s synonymous with the far left because of immigration. The goal is obviously to do to Texas what was done to California, as noted elite Elon Musk calls out.
New York, where I’m from, also used to represent a different power block, but it too has been made uncompetitive by immigration. It wasn’t that long ago you could imagine republican mayors of NYC.
What has kept the GOP competitive is that in the last 20 years the Scots Irish of Appalachia switched parties. They overwhelmingly voted for bill Clinton and overwhelmingly voted against his wife. It’s difficult to see how the GOP could be competitive without them, and while this pulls down the average white iq of the GOP it’s far less problematic then the democrats relationship with blacks.
Elections right now hinge on whether rust belt “nice” white women dislike Trump or progressives more. This is the part of the country where whites put up numbers close to that national average, but black votes get the elections close to 50/50. Romneyism didn’t win over these people in sufficient numbers despite being “nice”, and he was a total flop with non-whites.
Interesting article. I wonder how much conversion occurs in the other direction, and his much is the result of intermarriage between the 4 main Anglo ethnic groups and between other European immigrants?
Speaking anecdotally from my own family history, the first man to carry my surname into America came from Sussex to New Hampshire in the 1650s, and was some form of congregationalist (probably a Puritan). I still have distant relatives with the same surname in NH, and presumably they align with the social and political views of the other Northeasterners. However, my branch of the family ended up migrating to rural PA/OH and my Protestant grandfather converted to Catholicism when he met my Italian immigrant grandmother. My Dad married my Catholic Mom, who comes from a mostly French and Irish immigrant background. While my ancestral roots trace back to the Puritan Northeasterners, subsequent familial history has resulted in me being completely alien to them - both ideologically and religiously.
This is more true than most Americans care to admit. The descendants of Southerners in my own state of Michigan still see themselves as such. I notice that your Albion's seed discussion ignores the Midwest, which is mainly populated by the descendants of Germans and Scandinavians. What is your opinion regarding this region?
In terms of redeeming institutions and obtaining cultural power, I would recommend that smart members of the Right move to purple states such as Wisconsin, Michigan and Ohio. Nebraska should be included in this efforts as its educational system is surprisingly woke for the political environment.
Is it really true that the Midwest is mostly German and Scandanavian? I think the majority of the White population everywhere is English, but people remember non-English ethnicities more because they're not the default. A person who's 3/4 English and 1/4 Irish would be likely to say "I'm Irish."
Midwesterners really are predominantly German. I have long suspected that this explains the social conformity and predilection for manufacturing in this region. If not for World War I, German would be a robust American second language, perhaps enjoying a status similar to Spanish today. However, you are correct in asserting that the largest European group in the South and West is English. These are the people who describe their ancestry as "American".
Trumpism is the problem for conservatism. Trump represents a total revolt of the white rabble conservative against the conservative elite. This leads the conservative movement lead by midwits.
Random thought: The time will come when white ethnics will be but a small minority in a poc technocratic state, at which the point they will claim compensation for founding America.
I think calling current right-wing populism an oppositional culture is illuminating and something we need to grapple with. Our dumbest just like to complain (understandable) but many of our smartest truly want to destroy current elite institutions (NYTimes, Harvard, NIH) rather than force them to provide us service. There are a lot of midwits and fake girl jobs in existing elite institutions but I would rather judge them based on the results of the requests we make of them instead of micromanaging their internal structure.
OK we win... what then? We rule. What does that look like? Requesting stuff from elite institutions. Let's focus more on the requests we will make on those institutions and realize that we might be able to get like 20% of them without needing to go all 1776.
Not at all. Winning doesn't mean that Harvard does what we want 20% of the time. Winning means that Harvard and the NYTimes are totally destroyed and replaced by new elite institutions which we control. This is already happening with the media.
Ah so you are one of those. What media are you referring to? Podcast bros are certainly popular. There are some decent substack posters. City Journal does some good work. What are you referring to as emerging right-wing elite media institutions?
Aristocracy isn't the only element of Southern culture. There's also (fighting) honor, Evangelical Christianity, and race-consciousness. And some parts of the aristocratic ethos are not anathema in America, even if political aristocracy is.
Great post.
A welcome counterweight to northeastern dominance is the growth of the Sunbelt. This long term trend really kicked into gear after 2020 and building a truly alternative system in Texas/Florida is key.
I think the push for immigration is largely about trying to neutralize this. California once represented an alternative power block, now it’s synonymous with the far left because of immigration. The goal is obviously to do to Texas what was done to California, as noted elite Elon Musk calls out.
New York, where I’m from, also used to represent a different power block, but it too has been made uncompetitive by immigration. It wasn’t that long ago you could imagine republican mayors of NYC.
What has kept the GOP competitive is that in the last 20 years the Scots Irish of Appalachia switched parties. They overwhelmingly voted for bill Clinton and overwhelmingly voted against his wife. It’s difficult to see how the GOP could be competitive without them, and while this pulls down the average white iq of the GOP it’s far less problematic then the democrats relationship with blacks.
Elections right now hinge on whether rust belt “nice” white women dislike Trump or progressives more. This is the part of the country where whites put up numbers close to that national average, but black votes get the elections close to 50/50. Romneyism didn’t win over these people in sufficient numbers despite being “nice”, and he was a total flop with non-whites.
Also how to change the culture/dominate:
1)defund Hollywood via reducing copyright
2)business classes in highschool
3)find right wing gamers/influencers and other decentralized entertainment figures
4)reduce college length
Interesting article. I wonder how much conversion occurs in the other direction, and his much is the result of intermarriage between the 4 main Anglo ethnic groups and between other European immigrants?
Speaking anecdotally from my own family history, the first man to carry my surname into America came from Sussex to New Hampshire in the 1650s, and was some form of congregationalist (probably a Puritan). I still have distant relatives with the same surname in NH, and presumably they align with the social and political views of the other Northeasterners. However, my branch of the family ended up migrating to rural PA/OH and my Protestant grandfather converted to Catholicism when he met my Italian immigrant grandmother. My Dad married my Catholic Mom, who comes from a mostly French and Irish immigrant background. While my ancestral roots trace back to the Puritan Northeasterners, subsequent familial history has resulted in me being completely alien to them - both ideologically and religiously.
This is more true than most Americans care to admit. The descendants of Southerners in my own state of Michigan still see themselves as such. I notice that your Albion's seed discussion ignores the Midwest, which is mainly populated by the descendants of Germans and Scandinavians. What is your opinion regarding this region?
In terms of redeeming institutions and obtaining cultural power, I would recommend that smart members of the Right move to purple states such as Wisconsin, Michigan and Ohio. Nebraska should be included in this efforts as its educational system is surprisingly woke for the political environment.
Is it really true that the Midwest is mostly German and Scandanavian? I think the majority of the White population everywhere is English, but people remember non-English ethnicities more because they're not the default. A person who's 3/4 English and 1/4 Irish would be likely to say "I'm Irish."
https://x.com/SidKhurana3607/status/1506738462879272960/photo/1
Midwesterners really are predominantly German. I have long suspected that this explains the social conformity and predilection for manufacturing in this region. If not for World War I, German would be a robust American second language, perhaps enjoying a status similar to Spanish today. However, you are correct in asserting that the largest European group in the South and West is English. These are the people who describe their ancestry as "American".
That map is self-id. I think DNA evidence might show something different.
Trumpism is the problem for conservatism. Trump represents a total revolt of the white rabble conservative against the conservative elite. This leads the conservative movement lead by midwits.
Random thought: The time will come when white ethnics will be but a small minority in a poc technocratic state, at which the point they will claim compensation for founding America.
Okay… but when the Southern culture has had power, what good has it done with them?
As long as the conservative movement promote people like Navaro and Robert Kennedy junior, it won't have an elite made of smart people.
Not true. RFK is no more of a crank than Paul Krugman.
Attracting smart people has more to do with contingent historical factors than the actual substance of a movement.
I think calling current right-wing populism an oppositional culture is illuminating and something we need to grapple with. Our dumbest just like to complain (understandable) but many of our smartest truly want to destroy current elite institutions (NYTimes, Harvard, NIH) rather than force them to provide us service. There are a lot of midwits and fake girl jobs in existing elite institutions but I would rather judge them based on the results of the requests we make of them instead of micromanaging their internal structure.
OK we win... what then? We rule. What does that look like? Requesting stuff from elite institutions. Let's focus more on the requests we will make on those institutions and realize that we might be able to get like 20% of them without needing to go all 1776.
Not at all. Winning doesn't mean that Harvard does what we want 20% of the time. Winning means that Harvard and the NYTimes are totally destroyed and replaced by new elite institutions which we control. This is already happening with the media.
Ah so you are one of those. What media are you referring to? Podcast bros are certainly popular. There are some decent substack posters. City Journal does some good work. What are you referring to as emerging right-wing elite media institutions?
Aristocracy isn't the only element of Southern culture. There's also (fighting) honor, Evangelical Christianity, and race-consciousness. And some parts of the aristocratic ethos are not anathema in America, even if political aristocracy is.