CUCK YOU!

Don't be fooled; he's only out to cuck you, too.

by Andy Nowicki

Back in college, I spent two years in a dormitory called "Studio House," a residence hall for students with an interest in theater and the arts.

It wasn't anywhere near as faggy as it sounds, honest Injun.

The "Studio House" crowd, like most communities, developed its own distinctive lingo. Certain terms became hip and trendy, and caught on with nearly everyone. (I, however, was a consistently contrarian outlier on this front, being a curmudgeonly nonconforming grumpy old fogey even at the tender age of 19, albeit certainly vulnerable to manipulation in other ways.)

By far the most prevalent, and for me most insufferable example of irritating Studio House argot, was the (over)use of the term "random." If in the midst of a conversation, someone uttered a non-sequitur, others would giggle and say, "That was so random!" If someone returned from seeing David Lynch's Wild at Heart or the Coen brothers' Barton Fink, or some other surreally-tinged flick of the period, the cinematic summary would be: "Oh my god, we just watched the most random movie ever!!!" The wild, funky imagery in Deee-Lite's day-glo-spangled video for "Groove Is In the Heart" was creatively classified under the file of "totally random." President Bush's sudden mention of the New World Order in a presidential address on September 11, 1990 was, likewise, "random to the max"  If we were walking outside and a dog suddenly started barking, startling everyone, it would be called a "really random" event. You get the idea.

What "random" was to early 90s collegiate artfags, "cuck" is to mid 2010s alt-right fags. That is to say, its sudden overuse signifies both a lack of imagination and a conspicuous compulsion towards conformity on the part of its smitten adherents. The "catching on" of this term, to the point where it has now attracted attention and provoked consternation from various quasi-mainstream sources, confirms its newfound notoriety. However, the discerning observer detects that the explosion of "cuck" is generally due to the desire of some to "be like the cool kids," the better to signal their legitimate badassedness and thus feel that they truly "belong" as edgy rebels.

Unlike the valley girl-esque "random," "cuck" is a harsh-sounding term, with the rancid backwash flavor of a schoolyard taunt. Still, there is something ironically effeminate about those who most relish slinging this slur, alleging the emasculation of their foes. Hearing them carry on puts one in mind of a pack of lads who cluster around a core group of "alpha" leaders, like pledges to a fraternity; by duly expressing themselves in the prescribed manner, they carry out a ritual of self-abasement, in which they display fealty to their ostensible superiors. One might even say it's how the Fuhrerprinzip tends to play itself out among the non-Fuhrer caste.

"Be cool. Say 'cuck'! Say 'cuckservative'!"

Indeed, a hierarchy, and a concomitant pecking order, has emerged among the alt-right, with certain "cool kids" perceived as the ones to follow, their rhetoric deemed most fashionable to emulate. (This notion of hierarchy qua hierarchy suits many in the alt-right orbit, but I can't say that I'm one such adherent. Though I of course share their aversion to the modern-day religion of "equality," I am deeply dubious of the concomitant assertion that one particular group is best fit to rule over all of the others, or has licence to behave like jackasses on account of their self-awarded ubermensch-status. But this is perhaps a subject to be elaborated upon some other time.) Thus the success of the "cuck" and "cuckservative" memes are largely due to what could be called the patently "cucked" proclivities of those who value social acceptance over intellectual independence.

Thus, I have declined to ride on the "cuck" bandwagon-- though I share the cuck-chuckers' general disdain for mainstream conservatism as currently constituted in the United States-- because I am wary of sudden shifts in popular vocabulary and what these shifts tend to signify. But there are a couple of other reasons why I see fit to eschew the converging cuck-opoly:

(1) The term "cuckold" is, in essence, anti-male and ironically enough, pro-feminist in its implications.

Well before the current cuck-craze emerged, I published an article at the "old" Alternative Right page (since re-published at the current site), entitled "The Wail of the Cuckold." In that piece, I outlined the peculiar power of REO Speedwagon's lite-rock anthem, "Keep On Loving You." The speaker is told from the point of view of a man whose wife is repeatedly unfaithful to him; still, he is unwilling to cut the no-good hussy loose, because he clings to a hope that they can regain the love that they once shared.

While the eternally-loving, multiply-cucked wailer of the song is plainly pathetic, there is still something deeply poignant about his plight. Indeed, the song points up one aspect of the malignant moral hypocrisy so rife in our gynocentric age: namely, that while a woman wronged by her adulterous husband is correctly regarded with pity and sympathy, a wronged man in the equivalent situation is often looked upon with patent contempt. Hence the continued recourse to the ridiculing "cuckold" slur, a holdover from pre-feminist times, with the accompanying implication that if only the husband had been more of a man, his woman would have stayed in line.

In fact, the reason why women resort to infidelity is generally the same as that of men: namely, a deficiency of morals. The adulterous activity of an unfaithful wife is not ascribable to the husband being insufficiently manly; rather, as with unfaithful husbands, it is a symptom of a deeply-ingrained character flaw on the part of the adulterer. Yet the continued use of "cuckold" as a sneer word helps to advance the very gynocentric, uber-feminist, man-shaming paradigm that today's alt-right intellectual dissenters ought to be warring against.

(2) Even if I were willing to ignore the conformist undertones and misandric overtones of the "cuck" campaign, I still can't support this trend, for the simple reason that it is metaphorically inaccurate.

Certainly I despise the sellouts, compromisers, and cowards within mainstream American conservatism, who would sooner bite off a finger than take any stand-- be it opposing mass immigration, lax borders, or the purging of the Confederate battle flag from the public square-- that would get them branded as "racists." But representatives of mainstream conservatism aren't gunshy on these matters because they are pathetic do-nothings who have been metaphorically cuckolded; this in fact gives them too much credit, since it presumes that these creatures are ineffectual but generally well-meaning.

Instead, the so-called "cuckservatives" are more accurately speaking, straightforward traitors, carpetbaggers, opportunists, and phonies; in short, they are, metaphorically, the cuckolding rake who despoils everything that is good, decent, and lovable, the better to fulfill their own brazen lust for possession, power, and control. If we give them our votes, our time, our admiration, or any assent whatsoever, it is we who have been cuckolded, not they. The only manly course of action is to refrain, withdraw consent, and give our would-be exploiters nothing but hell.



Andy Nowicki, assistant editor of Alternative Right, is the author of eight books, including Under the Nihil, The Columbine Pilgrim, Considering Suicide, and Beauty and the Least. He occasionally updates his blog when the spirit moves him to do so. Visit his Soundcloud page.