The American Conservative Union (CPAC) and America First (AFPAC) had their big annual events this weekend in Orlando Florida. Both were moved from Washington to Florida because of the Covid panic. Both are struggling to get their footing now that Trump has left office, so it makes sense for both groups to hold their event in the former president’s home state. That and Florida has become the last bastion of rational, conservative government, where the people remain free.
The interesting juxtaposition is that both events claim to be speaking for the future of the American Right. CPAC is trying to appropriate populism and make it palatable for the oligarchs. AFPAC is trying to turn over-the-top support for Trump into a youth movement that will attract oligarch support. Both sides have made clear that the other side is not on their side. One side is the old established brand with market dominance, while the other brand is the upstart trying to make a splash.
Another point of comparison worth mentioning is that AFPAC managed to pull of their event in the teeth of institutional opposition. Given the climate, no one would have faulted Nick Fuentes for cancelling the show. He not only went forward with it, but he also pulled off the biggest dissident event ever staged. To get hundreds of people in and out of a semi-secret event, attended by sitting Congressmen and political celebrities, without a hitch is a stunning achievement by Fuentes and his crew.
On the other side of things, CPAC was lightly attended compared to years past, in part because of the location change. Conservative Inc. is a creature of Washington and CPAC is like their annual awards show. Holding CPAC in Orlando is like holding the Oscars in Iowa. There is also the fact that CPAC is a legacy brand and legacy brands are out of favor on the Right. Two generations of failure have most right-wing people looking for something better than the same old offerings.
The two visions of the future of the right are interesting in that neither is all that clear about where they are going. CPAC is clearly scrambling to protect their brand by allowing some populists back into their “big tent.” It is easy to forget that they ran off the Buchanan Brigades back in the bad old days. For a long time, CPAC was about making sure Trump’s brand of politics never got a purchase in the Republican Party. Events have forced them to be nice to people they generally despise.
On the other hand, Fuentes is starting from a paleoconservative base. He has often described himself as a paleocon. His movement has been carried forward by the blustery thermals of the Trump phenomenon. Like the Trump phenomenon, the goals are not all that clear. Right now, Fuentes and his imitators on live streaming platforms are speaking to issues important to young white men. In is a genuinely populist and right-wing phenomenon, in that it is entirely reactionary.
The trouble for both sides is they are like farmers who have been suffering through a long drought. It had been so long since they felt the rain, they were not prepared for when the heavens would open and saturate the earth. Suddenly, political actors find themselves surrounded by fertile soil. In the case of the old guard, it means learning how to be farmers again. In the case of the new guard, it is coming to terms with the fact they have never been farmers.
Another problem for both sides is they lack a language geared toward the future, so they rely on the language of the past. The civic nationalist stuff from CPAC appeals to old people, but it has no answers for what is happening nor for what is coming as America becomes majority-minority. They cannot even bring themselves to oppose immigration, which would at least acknowledge reality. CPAC is, at best, a bit of escapism for people who have no future.
AFPAC, on the other hand, gets that demographics are changing, but there is still that hope it can all be fixed. The name of their movement gives it away. Putting America first only makes sense when you can define America. Granted, there is a fair bit of rhetorical sleight of hand here, in order to dodge the censors, but at some point, they must confront the fact that America looks nothing like America. What comes next will look nothing like what is in our history books.
What matters most, of course, is that CPAC is the past and AFPAC or something like it is the future. Nick Fuentes managed to do what the alt-right could never muster and that is create a legitimate political movement. Unlike the various goofballs that populated the alt-right leadership, Fuentes has proven himself to be an effective organizer and a highly effective leader. He is arguably the most talented figure to come from the populist uprising that was kicked off by the Trump presidential run.
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“The two visions of the future of the right are interesting in that neither is all that clear about where they are going. ..”
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The same could be said about the DR. In fact, the dissidents are in the same boat as the rest when it comes to re-learning farm skills. Perhaps I can be forgiven for smirking at the swarm of Cons. Inc. that accosted you over the weekend? While I certainly can’t dispute the way you handled them… I am stumped too. Any future we have is going to involve those people.
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Zman was accosted over the weekend? We need to have a “hate Whitey” rally in front of NR headquarters.
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If you mean Gab, those are most likely bot accounts.
As far as the dissident right, there is no comparison to be made. CPAC and AFPAC are organizations. The dissident right is just a name for those who start from the basis of biological and demographic reality.
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I think this will be a fairly salient issue in whatever future we have – a large cohort of Whites, to say nothing of the remaining dross including joggers, little hats and various other mystery meat will need to be purged from the system and, in the case of the remaining Whites, in many cases) it’ll be pitting friends against friends and family members against each other.
I wish these younger guys the best of luck. Hopefully a charismatic and strong leader can arise from the bunch.
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Imagine standing on a butte overlooking the wide Mississippi River. CPAC is holding an old-timey revival meeting in a tent by the shore, complete with fire & brimstone preachers and snake-handlers. AFPAC, led by a charismatic messiah, is leading a flock as they attempt to wade across the river to the far shore where heaven awaits. The powerful current of the Mississippi is oblivious to both groups and flows on inexorably.
Most of the population carries on with their daily lives because habit, but there is growing anxiety due to rumors of biblical rains falling in the NW and the banks of the Mississippi can only hold back so much before the levees fail. The wise ignore the sideshows and begin moving to high ground.
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Nick DID define what America is: a Christian nation with a British cultural framework. He was very upfront that America was founded by White people, and that we oppose demographic change.
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America was a Christian nation with a British cultural framework. It is not now and has not been for a very long time. There is no voting your way back to it.
This is the central problem for Nick and the American First guys. They need to articulate a vision that has some basis in reality. What they are doing now is hauntology. It has an emotional appeal, but there is no way to act on it.
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I suspect (though don’t know) that Mr. Fuentes’ game is to build a substantial and recognized alternative political group before he gets honest about the state of America. American nationalism is still immensely popular among Whites, and most of them aren’t going to want to let that dream go until the very last second. Better to bring them to a point where they can start to accept that the dream died a generation ago than to leave them as useful idiots for the mainstream grifters
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Agree. The priority has to be to create a place Normie can feel at home. Once the flock is gathered and sees itself as a flock, the shepherding can begin.
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Sadly the DR offers nothing in this regard either. At least Fuentes is doing something and he does show a talent for organizing which is really critical if you want a movement to get off the ground.
It’s good enough that it will attract normies and MAGA peeps fed up with Clown World. Which is a start. It doesn’t need to be perfect it just needs to be good enough.
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Comparing an attitude to an organization is pretty dumb.
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Nick is creating a political organization assembled from the largest ethnic group in America, disaffected white people. It is very similar to what Mark Collett is doing with PA. Only Mark doesn’t have the coat tails of a Trump, who as Nick pointed out is the most popular republican president in history, but is treated like a leper by the mainstream. There is a huge potential that nick is tapping into. And, looks like he has the best chance of any nationalist on the scene to actually accomplish. Which is why most of Nicks speech was a warning about opportunists piggy backing on nationalist rhetoric like that handsome cripple from NC or the squatamalan latinx from Illinois and turning this raw, burning energy into the Tea Party part deux.
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Trump was never the most popular anything. Reagan was much more popular. Heck, Nixon was more popular than Trump.
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Fuentes puts a lot of emphasis on Christianity. I don’t know how popular that is with Americans these days, but I do know what is popular and that’s 1. Limiting immigration, 2. Stop the outsourcing of jobs, 3. Stay out of war. That’s what the people want.
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I will say this: ipso facto, Christianity is the white man’s religion, which is one reason it is reviled so intensely by the AWRs. Thus, when people like Fuentes deploy Christianity as a political trope, they are using code language for white, and that is a good thing.
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He’s smart and uses it as a dog whistle to attract White Christians to his cause. He knows full well the Left HATES White Christians so he’s leveraging it.
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It would be interesting what the old man himself, Pat Buchanan thinks of Nick Fuentes or if he has even heard of him?
Pat got me started down the DR path. If only…..
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Pat is getting somewhat senile. He believes that Biden really did get more valid votes than Trump. Sheesh!
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I hope for the best success for Fuentes and his crew, but these millennials with their comic books, bad music and ill fitting suits are really annoying.
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I wish those darn kids would stay off my lawn.
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Farmers don’t just till the land, they also involve themselves in husbandry. Rather than complaining about the superficial, we’d be better off trying to break and domesticate the younger generation; harness them for our benefit and theirs.
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I never let my son wear a ball cap anything but brim forward, and with a proper bend in it best shaped in the bull pin while waiting to get the nod from the skip late in the game.
My father taught me a windsor knot, loafers with tassels and pleated pants were for sissys. The top button on your suit or sport coat should be buttoned only when standing, and unbuttoned while sitting.
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Heh. Don’t I know it. There’s nothing that looks stupider than a 20-something, barbate, ectomorphic white guy wearing a suit two sizes too small, the jacket unbuttoned, and no tie. White guys looked better in 1971 than they do in 2021, and that’s saying something.
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it’s telling that trump spoke at CPAC. that to me, is a disqualifier for future consideration. but none was needed as his time is over.
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He has spoken there yet. That will take place this afternoon. You may want to at least wait and hear what he says before going off on him.
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“has not” spoken there last. You know what I mean.
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“YET. YET.” Damn, I’m still hung over.
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You’re certainly correct that “America First” can be read In at least two ways. For the short term, that ambiguity can work in our favor. It has broad appeal to normies and the right-leaning that are not yet enlightened regarding demographics. It can then be subtly morphed into “America = white”.
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One of the more ironical aspects of our accelerating demographic change is the emergence of fiery dissident leadership by a person named “Fuentes”. And he’s not alone. Peter Navarro and Devin Nunes are two more intensely involved politicos on the right carrying Spanish names. Perhaps American will eventually get the caudillo we so desperately need.
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And then there’s 18 year old Isabel Peralta, who’s now in hot water for saying something that’s forbidden.
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Fuentes as a caudillo makes for a hilarious mental image. Thanks for the laugh!
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I’m not suggesting any of those three will be the one. I’m suggesting that such a person could very well come from Spanish ethnicity. And wouldn’t that be the greatest irony of all?
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I think there *is* actually a pretty well-defined core to this-thing-of-ours (hehe, la cosa nostra). First all it must begin with patriarchy. The gynocracy has failed. It has shown, through years of coddling idiots, criminals, malignant foreigners, degenerates, culminating in the Covid madness and rioting, that it cannot maintain ordered freedom.
National integrity (strong borders) and social stability, “family values” in the sense of policies that encourage the formation of family, driving Leftists out of the school system, overhauling and downscaling higher education, an economy with a (good) place for people of all IQ levels and inclinations who are productive and civilized, opposition to offshoring, opposition to the oligarchs and imperial wars, emphasis on personal freedom and free association: these are the core values around which “a band of tribes” can be assembled. As long as free association is held sacred, whites, hispanics, and even certain blacks, can work together toward these ends and against globoscholomo. Unlike the Leftist vision of coercive multiculturalism we can have one of “separate *and* equal”, working for the goals we have in common and against common foes. This can be the core of what is meant by “America First”.
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Devin Nunes is of Portuguese descent, not Spanish.
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When it comes to politics, vagueness is a feature, not a bug. Vagueness is what had people swooning over Obama’s “masterful” rhetoric: he made everybody believe he was dog-whistling to them personally while saying absolutely nothing.
As soon as you get specific with your politics, you give your cadres something to fraction over, and a target for your enemies to personalize, freeze and polarize.
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I generally agree, obviously, given that I have been making this point for years. It is one thing to be vague and another to be entirely formless. Hauntology works for him right now, but at some point there has to be some structure.
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Yes. In the land of milk and honey, you must put them on the table…
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You go back, Jack, do it again
TBH, I know very little about Fuentes. His voice annoys me and I don’t like his format, but I hear good things about him.
But on general reflection, I don’t think it is necessary for us to commit to a program yet. We’re doing pretty damned well with the white-whistling, considering the opposition we’re facing. Let’s not disturb ourselves while we’re on a winning streak, let’s kick the can of worms down the road until we are forced to deal with it.
At the rate our people are being redpilled these days, time is on our side.
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At least publicly, I’m an anti-programist. I think the big hurdle for AF is in accepting that demography not stoppable. They are floating up on a blend of myth and nostalgia. At some point they will need to grapple with reality. They stop talking about the pasty and start talking about the future.
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I’m with you, Felix
And I’m still “old school” as they say where a person’s face says a lot, and with Fuentes I just don’t like his face. He looks like he’d be a tattletale or something. I can just see him crying to his mom if we picked on him in the neighborhood growing up.
it only worked because the MSM promoted him like he was God. And bullied everyone else into silence if they opposed the Black Jesus.
Trump(and Perot) was the opposite, he won office because he went specific. Going specific does work if it is on issues that are important to the voters. The DR OTOH has to be nebulous for the simple reason it has no real core issues or at least those that are relevant to a large percentage of the White population.
Hope, change and repatriation
” Vagueness is what had people swooning over Obama’s “masterful” rhetoric: he made everybody believe he was dog-whistling to them personally while saying absolutely nothing.”
That must be what Fauci is doing. He’s all “perhaps” this and “could be” that, yet people hang on his every word like he’s imparting the wisdom of the ages.
In my world, a bygone world of honesty, you couldn’t be considered an expert unless you SAID SOMETHING.
Fuentes sounds impressive. How do I follow him? I did a search, and wow what hatred for him from the mainstream organs. I saw a website that is under construction and a twitter handle. Is there a podcast somewhere?
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I know very little about Fuentes, but if he’s a powerful force operating outside of the Power Structure, then he’s the very sort of person all of that razor wire is intended to ward off.
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He was banned from YouTube some time ago. We was banned from DLive in January. He has a Telegram channel that you can search for.
CPAC, AFPAC–it is all for naught. These organization’s raison d’etre is electoral politics, which is a lost cause. No matter how talented Fuentes is, there is no way in hell he can leverage his ability into meaningful electoral victories, at least not at the federal level. It’s a closed shop, and the only people allowed within that shop are members of the Power Structure. What is desiderated is a secessionist or counterrevolutionary Nick Fuentes. As it is, he’s squandering his skill tilting at windmills on the Potomac. And if he continues wasting his time in this endeavor, he won’t even be a historical footnote.
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Perhaps it is important to pretend that our political goals can be achieved conventionally, at least for now. Any public display of unity that counters the narrative is beneficial.
That being said, I’m still looking at land on nowhere’s taint, making a list of supplies for my cabin, and distributing its location to “our guys.” Just picking up shards of America that have fallen around me and doing my best to move on.
When I envision our future, I envision many elders leading many lands. Not one leader, and certainly not one land.
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This is indeed what I meant above by “a band of tribes” opposing globoschlomo.
I’m still trying to figure out how Fuentes hasn’t been kicked off Twitter, but Trump has…
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If Fuentes becomes powerful enough, i.e. dangerous enough, he’ll be evicted as well.
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Curious isn’t it. Twitter purged a ton of accounts last night, forcing me to create my sixth account, but people like Fuentes and Richard Spencer never seem to get swept up. I wonder why?
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Meh, Fuentes isn’t a leader in any real sense. He is one step above a carnival barker, a court jester. He says amusing stuff and he can get people riled up but he is just an immature kid. The fact that many of us consider him to be a modestly serious person is a sign that we are in worse shape than I thought.
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He is probably some sort of sexual weirdo and will be a problem in the future. I personally would have nothing to do with him.
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He’s got “priest” written all over his face
He looks like the young guys studying for the priesthood I remember seeing when I was young
Damn the Z blog is a tough crowd.
Hard to believe Florida almost elected Andrew Gillium (D) as governor. Months after he lost, he was caught in a room by police where there was allegedly meth paraphernalia and a couple of gay male prostitutes. (He’s married, with kids)
Imagine if he’d been governor when Covid hit. It’s depressing beyond words that Florida almost elected this guy; even worse that this is the best the Democrats can put up for election.
Florida is a last bastion, in many ways, but it won’t last much longer.
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A good article on Identity Dixie the other day about Florida seceding and joining with other states in a new Confederacy
As far as politics go, that’s the only political movement I could get behind
It was interesting how Fuentes was able to get a sitting member of congress (Gosar) to show up. Nonetheless, I’ve never been much of a fan of Nick. More of an Allsup guy.
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A young man who has been passed through many influental hands seldom emerges unscathed. Maybe he was even fucked up to begin with. Nevertheless, I think what he’s doing is good in the short term.
He’s sorta of the David Hogg for Team Red
Real request,
I’m new to these parts. Have been reading and following for a while. Still seems somewhat alien to me.
My brother in law is a huge Soccer/Futball fanatic. I am totally agnostic on soccer. True sports involve large men beating the shit out of each other at close quarters. Anywho, he called and told me to save the date. Flew into town. Went to the stadium, gave me an expensive ticket. 4 hours of sheer confusion. Singing, chanting, effeminate men laying on the ground and miraculously springing back to life.
We were walking back to the car and he asked what I thought. I told him I had no clue what we had just happened.
My point – is there a ‘this side of the divide for dummies primer’?
I love the little GAB pyramid with the cartoons at the top. I may or may not be on any of the levels. But I like horses. Is there a menu in this joint, or is it like my first trip to In-and-out-burger? Do I ask for AFPAC animal style?
This is a serious request. My mother drilled into me that we are a DAR family. All my kin joined and served and fought and came back or stayed on a well-manicured hillside over there. Two of my sons joined up after 9-11. Both served in combat and came back. Both are seriously disillusioned. I fell like a failure for not reading the stitches on the ball soon enough. There will not be any more of mine going off to get shot at in any sandboxes.
So here I sit. Which team do I root for? Lots of names and organizations and up-and-coming and drifting-to-the-bottom groups here. This whole side has a lot of OPSEC. Very wise. How do I get an intern vest? I’m lousy with secret handshakes and signs. Just want to have a viable IFF system and a primer on the lingo.
This is long, but sincere.
Florida may be A bastion of freedom, but it is far from the last bastion. Many local governments are all republican on the ballot but socialist tyrants in actual practice. Code enforcement, always selective in practice, is a huge tyrant in the state. Once I left FL They locked down my CDL in the post 911 national database and extracted a few fees to let me transfer to my new state. Call em up in Tallahassee and you’ll find out how much power Desantis has in the deep trenches.
Close enough. They’re neighbors.