I was listening to the ZMan\u2019s Friday Podcast today.\u00a0 In one segment he raised the question whether people like Jordan Peterson helped or hurt the right-wing cause.\u00a0 Peterson is a psychologist academic who is battling the politically correct behavior codes in Canada\u2019s universities (and other areas of life).\u00a0 He is a civic nationalist who does not espouse any ethnic nationalist leanings and in fact specifically rejects any white nationalism as the flip side of the identity politics on the left that he rejects.\u00a0 ZMan concluded that for the most part the civic nationalists were a detriment.\u00a0 This he said was because they tended to position themselves barely to the right of leftists.\u00a0 And moreover, they were programmed to lose every fight.\u00a0 Their only function was to register each new veer to the left with an ineffectual protest.\u00a0 This response was their only function (other than being paid).<\/p>\n
I found this interesting from a few different angles.\u00a0 First off did I agree with this analysis?\u00a0 Secondly was I in the same compromised position?\u00a0 Was I my own enemy?!!!<\/p>\n
I\u2019ll address this question first.\u00a0 I think the answer is no for two reasons. First and most importantly, I haven\u2019t changed my opinions over time to keep up with the changing societal position.\u00a0 My moral and social point of view hasn\u2019t shifted to the left, over time.\u00a0 If anything, it has moved to the right.\u00a0 For that reason, I am safe from the charge of being a right guard of the left wing.\u00a0 The question of mercenary status is easily answered by my lack of any site monetization.\u00a0 Check and check.<\/p>\n
So back to the first question, do I agree with his evaluation?\u00a0 I do agree that there are lots of shills.\u00a0 There seem to be a number of guys doing their act to collect pennies.\u00a0 This actually doesn\u2019t bother me.\u00a0 We all have to make a living.\u00a0 But what is more important is the claim that these guys are just barely staying to the right edge of the leftists and that they maintain this position by constantly shifting leftward over time.\u00a0 Well, I don\u2019t know.\u00a0 Some of these guys are not so much moving left as much as they started in the center and seem to be gravitating rightward bit by bit as the Trump train rolls along.\u00a0 In that case, I guess I give them the benefit of the doubt.\u00a0 The folks the ZMan seems to be describing are the never-Trumpers.\u00a0 This includes guys like Jonah Goldberg, Bill Kristol and Kevin Williamson. \u00a0These were folks who were willing to embrace Hillary Clinton rather than deal with Donald Trump.\u00a0 To me that\u2019s the kind of position that precludes being an actual conservative.\u00a0 At least with Trump you had some chance of saving the country.\u00a0 But are there any never-Trumpers in the Alt-Lite?\u00a0 If anyone knows any let me know.\u00a0 I\u2019d like to look them up and see if the ZMan had this thing right or not.<\/p>\n
So conditionally, I\u2019m gonna say that the Alt-Lite ranges from neutral to helpful.\u00a0 Some of them are moving along to a useful supportive position that reinforces the appeal of the movement to include some of the slow-moving center.\u00a0 And the worst are just parasites feeding off attention in the wake of the Trump Train.\u00a0 And even that isn\u2019t such a bad thing from my point of view since I\u2019m even enjoying my piece of that action too. \u00a0After all Trump is now the greatest show on earth and what would the circus be without the vendors selling the popcorn, the program notes and souvenirs?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I was listening to the ZMan\u2019s Friday Podcast today.\u00a0 In one segment he raised the question whether people like Jordan Peterson helped or hurt the<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,245,6],"tags":[680,80,681,608,343],"class_list":["post-2155","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-current-events","category-review-of-article","category-trump","tag-alt-lite","tag-alt-right","tag-jordan-peterson","tag-nevertrumpers","tag-thezman-com"],"yoast_head":"\n