I was glad to get some interesting comments from both the civic nationalist and dissident right perspectives during the last few days. And I’m especially glad that the writers were level headed and thoughtful individuals. I visit various sites with all kinds of commentors who don’t always react to each other with, let us say, tolerant open mindedness. And I understand that verbal combat may be more of a feature than a bug at some of these sites but truthfully, I seldom learn anything useful from the sort of mental arm wrestling that goes on during these exchanges. So, kudos to all involved. We’ve raised the level of internet discussion by several orders of magnitude. Bravo.
I’m especially glad about this situation because I’m personally located somewhere on the border between the civic nationalist and dissident right factions. While I consider myself a civ-nat I recognize that for whatever reason my political cohort has been guilty of incredible gullibility for decades and I’m tired of being part of a conspiracy of the ignorant. So, I’ve been listening in on what goes on at the cool kids’ table and learning their lingo. And I’m not afraid to admit that they’ve got a lot of things figured out. But I also know that I’ll never be cool enough to sit at their table. I just believe too deeply in the decency of most people when they’re all treated fairly. I feel that if we run the game fairly, we can get people, all kinds of people, from the dumbest to the smartest and from the meanest to the most naïve to at least act decent.
But that’s why I’d like to have the discussion with people whose hearts are in the right place. If you ever see the comments section of a Fox News article it’s remarkable. There are some thoughtful comments. But they’re drowned out by a flood of rage-aholics. You could say that any site that has the traffic that a large outlet like Fox gets is bound to attract a goodly number of deranged individuals but from my point of view it renders the comments almost useless as a venue for the exchange of ideas. So that is why I’ve been trying to find people who straddle that same line on the political spectrum and set up a dialog. Because that political border is where I think the reality of our future lies.
We need to toughen up the civic nationalists to where they won’t let themselves be rolled by the progressives, while at the same time lure the dissidents back from the fringe where things get pretty dark. My dream would be to have a space where a guy as tough minded as the ZMan would be willing to have a good faith conversation with civ-nats like Michael Anton or Chris Rufo.
Now this might be terribly mistaken. As I’ve said many times, people must be allowed to select their own enemies and it’s ridiculously presumptuous of me to think I can judge whose interests are served by discussion and with whom. These are all grownups and they get to decide which playground to play in.
So, let’s not use those names. Let’s just use regular folks who inhabit the internet and try to see if the information flow serves any purpose. I’ve heard lots of interesting perspectives. And all of the talk has been quite cordial, which makes my life easier. So, keep up the good work.