THE END OF HISTORY AND THE Z MAN

by Ryan Andrews

If you’re looking for an example of libertarian Boomer posting, it doesn’t get much better than this. Not only is it is very representative, but that really is about as profound as their thinking goes. So, of course, I pretty much agree with AltRight’s recent vlog discussing the deficiencies of the boomer-created political paradigm.

THE RIGHT OF THE INDIVIDUAL TO HIS OWN NATION

by Ryan Andrews

To me, the performance of the Identitarian side on Andy Warski’s live chat last night represented the Alt Right in a nutshell. On the one hand, considering we are drawing from such a small pool, the level of talent on the Alt Right/Dissident Right is astonishing. Richard Spencer is verbally quicker on his feet than anyone the mainstream political nation has to offer at the moment. (John Dickerson is just as talented as an on-the-fly wordsmith, but he doesn’t have anything original to say. The fact that he is officially neutral probably limits him there.) On the other hand, the continued intellectual sloppiness/indifference is frustrating—the alt right movement is almost a decade old now, and at this point we should not be getting tripped up by basic-bitch liberal objections to white nationalism.

MULTICULTURALISM: THE SEPARATION OF NATION AND STATE

by Ryan Andrews 

A white pill from the Great White North: There is a worthwhile new activist group up in Canada that seems to have its act together called Students for Western Civilisation. Their leader, George Hutcheson, has posted a few videos/podcasts offering excellent analyses spelling out the logical implications of multiculturalist policy. The imposition of multiculturalism on an existing nation is presented as an additive process, but Hutcheson points out that it is also a necessarily subtractive process. The pre-existing nation (i.e. us) must be, to a greater or lesser extent, subtracted from the culture. It’s good stuff. (And the intro reminds me of the old Vanguard podcasts.)

WHERE THE RIGHT WENT WRONG

by Ryan Andrews

Ever since the shuttening of Radix, I have intended to re-run this essay at some point. And with the recent publication of James Lawrence’s Are We Right? (Part I), now seems to be as good a time as any. I wrote this piece over two years ago, and if I were to do it over again today there are certain portions I would phrase differently—my explanation of particularism would be more precise, for instance. But I stand by my main conclusion about the reasons for the meta-political failure of the Right throughout history, and I think that conclusion is relevant to the questions raised by Lawrence in his essay.

THE ONCE AND FUTURE POLITICAL ANIMAL

by Ryan Andrews

The seemingly anachronistic ubiquity of smoking in Blade Runner 2049 may be intended as nothing more than a tribute to the neo-noir original, just like the Pan-Am and Atari billboards. But perhaps it also symbolizes something psychological about the society it depicts: the feeling that it has no reason to live. The replicants, of course, do not have souls or free will. They have no past, and, because they can not breed, no collective future. Meanwhile, the humans are staring down-the-barrel at their obsolescence as a species. Ensouled or not, the replicants are so much smarter and stronger, and so even if they lack the agency to conquer or destroy humanity, what is the point of going on?

FREE SPEECH IS VIOLENCE, AND ITS MIGHT MAKES RIGHT

by Ryan Andrews

I have long taken heart that John Rawls and Immanuel Kant are both held in such high regard. (Rawls is widely considered to be the most influential political philosopher of the post-war age, and Kant to be the greatest philosopher of modern times.) Not that I am particularly sympathetic to the ideas of either one, especially Rawls’s, but I appreciate that they both argued in good faith.

THERE IS ONLY ONE SIDE

by Ryan Andrews

Ever since president Trump’s surprisingly precise blaming of “many sides” (not “all sides” or “both sides”) for the recent sad events in Charlottesville, the media and the political establishment have been howling about his supposed false moral equivalency. (It would have been more presidential, I gather, if he had acted according to president Obama’s example, and leveled inflammatory accusations before the facts are known.)

OPPOSITION TO WHITE FLIGHT NATIONALISM IS LITERALLY WORSE THAN HITLER

by Ryan Andrews

I've always tried to make the case that as far as ideals go, White (flight) nationalism is a good one, and White Imperium-ism (whether it be the European Imperium ideal, or any other variant of intra-white universalisms) is a bad one. Here though, I limit my argument to the practical advantages of “White flight nationalism.” Pro-White Imperium essays are usually infused with the slightly shrill and insistent tone of idealism infused with ideology. A less-kind reviewer might call it an emotional tone, but the actual arguments are practical appeals. If practicality is the territory on which they are most comfortable fighting, so be it.

As a practical matter, the issue essentially boils down to a simple trade-off between internal security and external security: the white flight ethnostate(s), without question, offers greater internal security; whereas Trey Knickerbocker’s Reconquista-of-all-of-America ideal, if it could be realized, would theoretically offer greater external security. Being smaller in size and population, the white flight ethnostate would presumably be at least somewhat more vulnerable to external aggression. On the plus side, the white flight ethnostate would have a self-selected population, making it less likely that it will lapse away from ethnonationalism. Manifest Destiny 2.0 would be a superpower, but the White population would not be self-selected at all. And of course, they would have to figure out what to do with the 135 million non-whites (and counting) who are already in the country.

WHITE SHARIA: THE ALT-RIGHT AT WAR WITH REALITY, HUMAN NATURE, AND ITSELF

by Ryan Andrews

Of all the “questions” based on false premises floating around the Alt Right (the Jewish question, the democracy question, the capitalism question, etc.), the “woman question” stands out as absolutely the most stupid. The framing of these other “urgent” questions may be erroneous, and the answers offered may be even worse, but, mixed in with the faulty reasoning and hyperbole, they all have at least some redeeming qualities. Not so with the woman question.

THE REVOLT OF GENERATION SNOWFLAKE

When snowflakes melt...

by Ryan Andrews

What we are witnessing in the ever more aggressive leftist efforts to suppress their political opponents is in many ways fairly familiar. When the status of an existing power structure is threatened, it fights back; and when true believers' ideals are challenged, they lash out.

However I also think there is another element at work here, and here I'm thinking primarily of the lower-order types of Leftists (like the antifa), which is that this has the feel of a kind of Ortegan revolt of the masses. I am not usually in the habit of seeking the aid of past thinkers' insights to form my own ideas—I already know what I think, so why waste my time with them? Here though, I’ll make an exception.

BECOMING WHO WE WERE

by Ryan Andrews

Before Trump, one of the most repeated maxims in Alt-Right circles was, "There is nothing left to conserve." The statement articulated the Alt Right's very reason for being: there may have been nothing left to conserve, but we were not here to conserve.

Whereas all past right-wing movements—from fascism to post-war conservatism—essentially tried to retrofit traditional values onto modern societies, we were to be a Right that would, finally, digest modern history and move forward to something new.

THE WISCONSIN IDEA MEETS THE AMERICAN REALITY

Scott Walker, or "Harley," as he would have liked to have been called, would seem to be a pretty traditionally Wisconsin guy. His political rise though, was actually only made possible by the decline of traditional Wisconsin.

by Ryan Andrews

The official center of Downtown Madison is a pedestrian-only, shopping/dining district called, fittingly, "State Street." It runs for about a mile, and at one end is the State Capitol, while at the other end is UW-Madison, Wisconsin’s flagship university. Locals probably associate the area more with raucous Halloween parties and homeless people than anything else, but State Street is obviously designed to be the symbolic cultural center of the state, physically linking the two great institutional expressions of its people.

It is a nice touch, I think, and it has long been much more than symbolic. Many readers, I am sure, are at least somewhat familiar with "the Wisconsin Idea"—the idea that "the boundaries of the university are the boundaries of the state." This means that the university is to expand the benefits of its knowledge to every citizen of the state.

OVERSELLING THE PATRIARCHY?

by Ryan Andrews

The origin of Patriarchy is the simple fact that men are stronger and more skilled at combat than women. In a strong and civilized state, physical strength, while still nice, is far less essential to survival. So, as civilization has advanced, and the rationale for Patriarchy has receded, ad hoc virtues were thought up to justify the status quo.

A portion of the Alt Right continues to believe in these ad hoc virtues. And many of these ad hoc virtues are true, just not true enough to justify Patriarchy. Let us look at few examples:

Women are so much less rational than men that, for the good of society, they should be denied all political and economic power.

Don’t be such a drama queen! I agree that, on average, men have slightly more logical minds than women. Researchers are divided on the existence of gender differences in intelligence, but even those who support the notion that men are smarter find that the gap is no more than 5 IQ points.

I ONLY TELL THE TRUTH

by Ryan Andrews

You may not want to hear it, but to quote the great man himself, “I only tell the truth.” And the truth is that the Alt Right’s fawning over Trump is embarrassing. Maybe we can ignore his boorish behavior. Let us also leave aside the question of whether he is sincere—in 2012 he complained that Mitt Romney’s “self-deportation” plan was inhumane and alienated Hispanics, then in 2015 he launched his Presidential campaign by claiming that Mexico was sending us criminals and rapists. What is the actual substance of his platform?

LIES, DAMNED LIES, AND RACIAL STATISTICS

Don't worry, numbers can explain this.

by Ryan Andrews

Between 2000 and 2014, the White share of the US population declined from 69.1% to 61.9%. In other words, the non-white share rose from 30.9% to 38.1%.

Lets imagine that over this same period, some state or county went from being 98% to 96% white, from 2% to 4% non-white. 98% to 96% is a smaller decrease than 69.1% to 61.9%, but 2% to 4% is a larger increase (percentage wise) than 30.9% to 38.1%. So how does the local newspaper spin it? Do they say that the local non-white percentage increased faster than the national rate, or that the local white percentage declined slower than the national rate? Both narratives are technically true, though obviously misleading.

ALTERNATIVE (WHITE)

Someone doesn't quite fit into Nazi Barbie's gang.

by Ryan Andrews

Unlike people, culture is never entirely black or white, but it does move around a lot between these theoretical poles. As the Obama administration has progressed (by happy coincidence), the aesthetic of youth pop culture has increasingly turned towards the “black.” Judging by the recent lifespan of these swings, we may be at “Peak Black;” but this is not an exact science. I do however think—and I base this opinion on historical precedent and what I think is commonsense—that these things go in cycles. Eventually, one or several of the various reactions against the “black aesthetic” will develop into a mass phenomenon—an alternative pop cultural aesthetic will emerge, and my hope is that the Alternative Right will play some role in creating it (as opposed to merely latching on to it).

TOWARDS A CENTRAL EUROPEAN UNION?

The Slavonic Epic by Alphonse Mucha.

by Ryan Andrews

In my recent piece arguing that European ethnonationalists ought to think seriously about secession, especially in the face of Germany’s reckless immigration policy, I regret that I was not more explicit about one point: the idea of a Central European Union.

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán at least understands, and is willing to say so publicly, that Germany’s immigration policy is an existential threat to the European people. The governments of The Czech Republic, Slovakia, and Poland (where the governing center-Right party was recently defeated at the polls by a more Right-wing party) seem to agree. That is a start, but words must be followed by action, and for that to happen, ethnonationalists in those countries need to force the issue.

LOSING LONDON TO REGAIN ENGLAND

Londonistan

Facing the Problem (and Forcing the Issue) of Multicultural Meltdown

by Ryan Andrews

London is the only city in the world that can credibly argue that it is both the greatest city in the world and that it is the greatest city in all of history. Excepting Paris, there is not another city in the world that has been so central to its nation’s identity for so long. (I don’t know, maybe some Scandinavian capital has always been just as dominant in its national conscious, but I’m talking about major powers.) Of England’s truly world famous monuments, most are found in, or very near, the City of London. London is England’s New York, Washington, and Hollywood, all in one. Much more could be said about London’s immense significance to England and the world, but none of it changes the fact that, sooner or later, England needs to let it go.

A CLOSER LOOK AT SAILER'S CITIZENISM

by Ryan Andrews

In my most recent VDare piece, in which I argued that the Alternative Right needs to move beyond being a culture of critique, and devote more energy to formulating an appealing and intellectually coherent ideal, in passing, I criticized Steve Sailer’s Citizenism as unfit for this role.

I wrote that Sailer was “emblematic of this gap in the [thought of the] Dissident Right [between the quality of our criticisms of Egalitarian Universalism and the inadequacy of the alternatives to it that we have thus far offered].” So here, I’d like to very briefly outline my reasons in a bit more detail.

A NOVEL IDEA ABOUT NOVELS OF IDEAS

by Ryan Andrews

If personal anecdote is poor evidence of a more universal truth, then fictional anecdote is even worse, and the foundation of a great novel deserves better.

So I propose that there is a place for direct, sustained, quantitive analysis/argument in literary fiction. 

The main characters and their immediate story need not, and absolutely should not, be touched by this. But the establishment of setting is also important, and this ought to be done, well, with direct, sustained, quantitive analysis/argument.