The term “neocon” has been a fixture of political debates in America for the last 40 years, being both an epithet, sobriquet and honorific. In the 80’s, a white person in the commentariat using the term was doing so as a stand in for “hawkish liberal Jews” and he would most likely be called an anti-Semite. It became important to neocons for people not to notice they were all liberal Jews. After the Cold War, Progressives started attacking the neocons, so the squealing about antisemitism lost its potency.
The truth is the original neocons were never conservative. Many were Trotskyists, but most were just very liberal Jews who wanted to use up America’s wealth to fight their ancient enemy, the Russian empire. Otherwise, they embraced the cosmopolitan Progressivism emerging on the Left. Probably the most generous description of neoconservatives was that they were anti-communists, who integrated into traditional conservatism in the effort to prosecute the Cold War. That was the spin, at least.
The years since the end of the Cold War has revealed them to be something else. The berserk, preternatural hatred of Russia is now a major component of neocon arguments, which is why they never shut up about Putin. After the Cold War, neocons opposed efforts to integrate Russia into the modern global economy and they have advocated in favor a hostile foreign policy toward Russia. They backed intervention in South Ossetia and they were behind the coup in Ukraine that has plunged the country into chaos.
Neoconservatism has also curdled into a bizarre hatred of Trump, with many neocons indulging in the most bizarre conspiracy theories. The people defending the FBI in conservative publications are all neocons. Here’s Ben Shapiro defending the FBI. Here’s Jonah Goldberg defending the coup plotters. Of course, the chief nutter of the NeverTrump club is Bill Kristol, whose son-in-law bought dirt on Trump from the now infamous Democrat dirty tricks operation, FusionGPS.
In the interest of accuracy, a major cause of neocon hatred of Trump is money. For eight years these guys were rubbing their hands together thinking about the great jobs they would land in the Jeb Bush administration. Jonah Goldberg’s old lady spent 2015 shopping for outfits, anticipating a six figure job in the next Republican administration. When you add up the book deals, salary, speaking gigs and insider dealing, Trump was a million dollar catastrophe for each of the leading lights of neoconservatism. Of course, they are mad.
That can explain some of the bitterness over Trump, but none of these guys are skipping any meals. John “Thanks Dad” Podhoretz takes $400,000 a year in salary just from his limited work at Commentary. Goldberg lives in a seven figure home in one of the most elite suburbs on earth. Max Boot just signed on with the Washington Post, where he probably makes $250,000 per year to write a weekly column. All of these guys were born into the world of “high pay, but low work” lifestyles that define the commentariat.
What really vexes them, is the fact they can no longer hide in the weeds of Buckley Conservatism. They used to be able to pass themselves off as conventional conservatives, who just had an active interest in foreign policy. Now, it is eminently clear that there is nothing conservative about them in the least. Whatever hand waving they offer in favor of traditionalism and normalcy, is always in the form of “Of course we should defend X, but let’s not waste political capital on that when we should be doing…”
Reverting to their liberal roots is one thing, but it is hard to see what is American about them, given their advocacy against Americans. When a central plank of your philosophy is that native stock Americans need to be replaced, you are un-American. Steve Sailer once described neoconservatism as “invade the world, invite the world” and it was an excellent observation. The growing recognition of this truth seems to be turning neocons in to outright, anti-white bigots. They despise you for noticing what is happening to you.
You see it in this Jonah Goldberg column the other day. The debate over immigration has made plain to white voters that the divide in Washington is between those celebrating the “browning of America” and those who oppose it. The Trump Effect is making that increasingly clear to voters. The people opposing Team Brown, want to preserve their communities and their culture. There is nothing more conservative than that, but the neocons have now taken to calling this a cult, an obvious reference to you know who.
Neoconservatism has come a long way from when Irving Kristol wrote “Confessions of a True, Self-Confessed ‘Neoconservative'” in 1979. The world has changed since the concepts that came to define neoconservatism were developed. Of course, all of the guys who founded it are dead. The people leading the movement today are mostly the ne’er do well sons of the founding generation of thinkers. The “Thanks Dad Chorus” that is modern neoconservatism is a good example of reversion to the mean.
Of course, what Eric Hoffer observed about causes is true of the neocons. “Every great cause begins as a movement, becomes a business, and eventually degenerates into a racket.” In fact, this is true of the entire ecosystem that is mainstream conservatism. The Buckley crowd are just squeezing out every last dime from National Review, trading on nostalgia to fleece Baby Boomers of donations. Commentary Magazine has a dwindling readership of septuagenarians worried that Hitler really did not die in that bunker.
Even so, Jews in America have faced little in the way of Antisemitism. That is something white Americans have always celebrated. So much so that no one thought much of the emergence of Jewish triumphalism in the last decades. If that triumphalism curdles into anti-white ethnocentrism, then that could change. When you see a guy like Jonah Goldberg appropriating the title of James Burnham book for his next screed against white people, you have to suspect this is all going to end poorly.
Pointing out that nearly every NeverTrumper is of the Tribe has got me permanently banned at Ace of Spades (Ace is a New Yorker and may or may not be Jewish) and Front Page Magazine (aka David Horowitz), and I’m skating on thin ice at American Thinker.
Mentioning the elephant in the room with the Star of David saddle blanket is the one thing that’ll getcha kicked outta the cocktail party for sure.
AoSHQ is a joke. It’s a bunch old lame baby boomers sitting around joking about being tough but sending in pictures of their furry kids every weekend. There is only one entertaining thing about the place. Ace is slowly but surely sinking into the alt right. He used the term “cuck” the other day and I died laughing. It’s just a matter of time before he adopts the dreaded ((())). There is nothing new to see there, but some of the horde are secret heretics and pop up here and occasionally link to the Zman.
I go there once in a while to see what news articles they link to and noticed that they have a prayer list. I that’s a nice thing, but what you see when you go through it is that the details of the request give away a lot of hints as to the ages of his readers if you know much about the ailments they complain about. His readership is quite old.
Hi, Jane!
I can’t believe they banned you from AoS! You’ve been a loyal commenting moron, forever. I quit commenting over there around 2011-12? Then gave up on the FB group around 2013, I guess.
Had enough of the pro-war, pro-GOP, pro-Nat’l Review/Cuckservative mindset that permeated everything.
I liked the people, though…
There was a discussion at instapundit about a ridiculous article titled The Anti-Christian Alt-right. I made a comment consisting of about 10 bullet points, one of them in reference to the fact that Jews pretty much have total control over every powerful institution in the US. I received about 10 replies, almost all of them ignoring the other points and honing right in on the point about Jews. https://pjmedia.com/instapundit/288364/ The so-called right’s reflexive, blind, and staunch defense of anything less than total celebration of Jews rivals to most fierce liberal support for urban blacks and homosexual deviants. it is literally… Read more »
The Mathew Rose piece that is the source of this is quite good. He’s basically saying, “The alt-right is smart, well read and mostly right. Oh my God what am I saying? Jesus! Jesus! Help me Jesus!”
I did a search on First Things website and found nothing condemning the embrace of homosexuality by Episcopals. They turned their church into a gay bathhouse and not a peep from the so-called defenders of Christianity, because that would upset Lefty.
The defenders of Episcopalian Christianity “turned the other cheek” and joined the Roman Catholics. That’s what traditional Christians of all denominations do now – retreat into ever-narrower mountain passes and such, leaving their fine old churches and liturgies to the barbarians. There is – or used to be – a robust “fuck you” element in Christianity that is nearly forgotten: I like to remind my fellow parishioners that at one time Popes rode on stallions at the head of their armies, in full battle-gear, laying waste to the Enemies of the True Church. That’s the Church I want – but… Read more »
Not all of the defenders of the Episcopal faith turned to Catholicism. Some pulled out and regrouped. They lost their structures but kept the traditions and the old prayer book and liturgies and never looked back. There is hope on that front too.
The irony is that First Things has a deep experience with Rene Girard, who pointed out the solution to mimetic violence within the Christian story. The Neocon and Neoliberal attempt to atomize, anonymize, and level society is the exact opposite of the Christian solution.
Hmmm – it seems to me Rose had a conclusion already in mind and wrote an article to support it. The whole basis of his theory, that the “alt-right” is anti-Christian, was supported by quotes from obscure intellectuals the author claims to be leaders of the alt-right. That’s all he could come up with? Pretty thin gruel, IMO.
I’m doing a longer bit on this in the next podcast.
I look forward to this.
This is Rose’s brainy/scholarly approach getting the better of him. I doubt that many alt-Righters see Spengler as central. Some know about Evola (and knew him before Bannon mentioned the name). i suspect many know of Benoist, too. Most contemporary Alt-Right stuff in the Anglosphere is not very preoccupied with religious critiques in my experience. But First Things is a religious journal so that’s the angle this guy took.
Agree. FT is really confused about the Alt-right and Trump and the rest of it. Their funding and general nature is cucked, of course, which leads to all sorts of strange things like banishing Maureen Malarkey from their site. But they are smart enough to realize the essential tension between implicitly supporting the enemies of Christianity and realizing that rescuing the freedom of worship looks exactly like the Alt-right – at best. It seems to me they did not go down the NeverTrump path, though they were sorely tempted.
Some Alt-Righters like Vox Day are openly pro-Christian. Many of the libertarian-to-altR converts (like Mike Enoch) are atheists, but they don’t make a big deal out of it. I’m sure there are neo-pagan types who take a Nietzschean critique to Judaism and Xianity as “slave morality” but honestly most Alt-Right stuff I see/read is about race realism, immigration restriction, etc. rather than preoccupied by religious disputes.
First Things turned to pig shit when Neuhaus died.
I read Goldberg for years but not since he succumbed to “Trump Derangement Syndrome”. I won’t read a column of his unless quoted elsewhere. I won’t give him the clicks.
The Jews are pissed off because they can sense that they are losing control of the narrative. The Neocons must be Replaced.
Driving to work the other day I heard a segment of Glenn Beck which was unhinged even by his standard; according to Glenn – and this was delivered in his PLEASE FIGHT THIS, NO ONE ELSE IS TALKING ABOUT THIS! mode – there is a global Neo-Nazi conspiracy directed by a high-level Russian, whose American acolytes include familiar names like Steve Bannon, our friend Jared Taylor and anybody connected with American Renaissance, even the whole gang at Breitbart, plus several other “rising stars of the alt-right” whom I’d never heard of. My guess is that Beck is a tool here… Read more »
Glenn Beck has been off his meds for years
Has Beck ever gone to an Amren conference?
Guess? Why is it a “guess” ? Beck is a complete tool. He’s been that way for years. Not sure if he’s a paid stooge or just on and off his meds as one of the other commenters said – but he’s been acting like a tool for at least a decade now. It was easy to see from him way back during previous election cycles. Especially when Ron Paul ran. When the polls said Paul wasn’t doing well – Beck would be all supportive. When the polls said he was doing well – he’d start crapping all over him.… Read more »
From the two small clips I’ve seen on YouTube, Beck has his white board out, connecting the entire Alt-right to Russian Alexander Dugan & Putin.
His theory seems to go like this-because Richard Spencer’s (ex? long separated?) wife has worked for Dugan & Dugan is a Russian who has interacted with Putin at least once-
Therefore, Putin controls the alt-right.
I’m just surprised Jennifer Rubin isn’t already declaring this as the gospel. Or, that blonde English crazy broad, Louise Mensch, at least.
It is impossible to direct enough amused contempt at the famous jelly-faced dicksucker, Jonah Goldberg. When Al Franken’s Senate term broke up in mid-air, I was reminded that Goldberg and his boss, former boarding school catamite Rich Lowry, turned down an offer from Franken to meet him for a fistfight; scroll down to “My Pundit Can Beat Up Your Pundit”: Fight Al Franken? I Guess Not… “Manliness is rooted in human nature. If you ignore it, it will grow like a weed — in the form of professional wrestling, hip-hop culture, or my first apartment in Washington. Gentlemen are the… Read more »
There is an epidemic of memetic infection undermining the productive core of our society, and prominent media actors (in every venue) are leading the charge. It is telling that a ridiculously high percentage of them are Jewish. And just like the Obama corruptocrats that have perpetrated the coup d’e´tat operation against Trump, they are banking on an eventual win to keep their tits out of the ringer.
I’ve been reading The Concept of Ideology, and other Essays, by George Lichtheim, a commie Jew who claimed to be socialist and killed himself some time after writing this in the mid sixties. He uses the term to describe anyone on the right, and makes use of hints throughout his writing that any philosophical underpinnings of any kind of conservatism leads to protofascism. My guess is that libs expected there to be no conservatism whatsoever after FDR had remade the country, and were a bit surprised when books by Lipmann, Buckley, and Kirk started coming out. It looks like the… Read more »
The true oddity is that most of the diaspora oligarchs in Russia are still there and quite powerful. Putin didn’t so much tame Jewish Power as he did cut a series of realpolitik deals with them in order to prevent a visceral backlash to the strip-mining of the Russian economy by the American and Russian diaspora in the 90s. Perhaps the neocons are simply diehards who fully believe in the extermination of the hated white goyim. Perhaps they are pure machivellian schemers who see the forever-war with Russia as the optimal pretext to funnel infinite public funds into their pockets… Read more »
Doc; So International Communists = Trotskyites some number of whom were of ‘the tribe’ but Russian National Communists = Stalinists who are not Trotskyites_? And later Trotskyites who *were* of the tribe but in the US and not the USSR > NeoCon’s_? Could be possible but I’m not sure how much ‘Trotskyism’ had to do with any of this. IMHO the name was just a flag of convince for commies in places where they were not in power and not really just an ethnic thing. After all, weren’t there also quite a number of USSR Communists who were of ‘the… Read more »
James Burnham’s book “Suicide of the West” is a must read for conservatives . In-depth insight into the liberal mind.
That’s Patrick J. Buchanan.
No, Buchanan wrote “The Death of the West” and James Burnham wrote “Suicide of the West.”
I was just perusing my copy of Suicide of the west. Maybe we’ve been done for a long time now.
I think it was Garet Garrett came up with “Revolution within the form” explanation. It describes the government changing completely but still using the outward appearance of the original construct. Seems like that has also happened to conservative publications and institutions. Now that some are on to them or unwilling to look the other way, they become unhinged and show their fangs.
Yes – it was Garet Garrett. The book was “The Revolution Was” – where he dealt with how the FDR administration hollowed out the form of Republic’s government from within. https://mises.org/library/revolution-was Opening statement: ——- There are those who still think they are holding the pass against a revolution that may be coming up the road. But they are gazing in the wrong direction. The revolution is behind them. It went by in the Night of Depression, singing songs to freedom. There are those who have never ceased to say very earnestly, “Something is going to happen to the American form… Read more »
They’re all still doing the same thing. Alt lite, civic nationalists, “can’t we get along” types refuse to recognize reality and retreat to magic constitution. Re demographics, 99% of the posts and comments about it insist “this” (whatever the “this” of the day is) is our last chance to prevent the transformation of our people and nation. I constantly point out it is a done deal and has been for years (more than 50% of all “American” k-12 schoolchildren are non-White) – crickets.
“Many were Trotskyists, but most were just very liberal Jews who wanted to use up America’s wealth to fight their ancient enemy, the Russian empire.” I’d lean more to them being anti-communist than dreaming about war against the Tsar, at least in the first generation who formed the actual movement. The works they put out in the 1960s and 70s seem to be more about being alarmed about the speed and direction the rest of the left was dragging everyone else in – they were 1930s New Deal men who seem pretty bewildered by 1968 radicals. The second generation seems… Read more »
Excellent assessment.
I tend to see the whole neo-con never-Trump hysteria as an inter-generational conflict on the Jewish right. I think dirtnapninja above is correct as well. About fifteen years ago Entertainment Weekly (I believe) did one of those “100 most powerful people in Hollywood” pieces. Five years earlier, it would have passed unremarked, but in the Internet era someone quickly noted that ~84 out of the 100 were Jews (quoting from memory here). It went viral, as the kids say, and EW quickly posted a craven apology for letting facts contradict the narrative — in this case for perpetuating the evil… Read more »
The goal is not the Browning of America, it is the emasculation of any alternative to the Jewish status-quo by the societal turmoil created by the Browning of America. I don’t think they have thought this thing through very well.
They have a tiger by the tail, no doubt about it. Leading gentiles by the leash has been fairly easy; the brown hordes, feral and indifferent to ‘holocaust guilt’, manipulated by well-financed Islamists, could be real trouble.
Before the current hysteria, more than one military thinker pointed out that the Israelis share the same strengths and weaknesses as the Germans: tactical and operational geniuses and strategic idiots. For some reason, I keep reading about the Japanese attack against the U.S. lately. They just really had no concept of what the strategic situation looked like. A simple, honest SWOT analysis would have sent them in a vastly different direction. We’re in the same boat right now, careening towards civil war, coup, or societal “reordering” because some tactically smart but strategically dumb elites don’t understand their own interests and… Read more »
The elites don’t care what happens. They will flee to another country to resume their parasitism if this one starts to go up in flames.
That’s what globalism means, a global world that belongs to them, to use at their personal discretion.
“Jewish dominance in news, entertainment, law, the think tanks, etc., is very rapidly coming to an end.”
I see little evidence for this.
Newspapers and networks – 20% or less of their prior audience Law – Proportion of Jewish lawyers is way down from the late 1980’s peak. I know that power and raw numbers do not always correlate, and I expect to see a generational lag in this area, but you do see kvetching online about fewer partners… remember my post was about fears, not reason Entertainment – The growth is all happening in web series and YouTube. The former are increasingly being produced outside the Hollywood power structure. Foundations – Again the growth of new foundations has eroded the power of… Read more »
“Elite Jews fear this will lead to pogroms, or worse.”
Lol, dare to dream.
The great fork in the road that no one talks about (except maybe me) is whether America Jews will decide to pull the plug on the crazy Jews in the media and politics. David Horowitz took a stab at it with his “Renegade Jew” article, but that’s it thus far. Time will tell. I do think there are a lot of Jews who are reconsidering their relationship with the Left. Maybe NeoCon 2.0 is anti-immigration, just as the NeoCon 1.0 was anti-communist.
Time will tell.
The Jews can’t pull the plug on their crazies. Jews do not control one another. They’re brutal with one another. The difference in the hatred they have for one another does not extend to the desire to extinguish their brethren. Contrast that to their desire to destroy the white population. Big difference.
I used to read the Jerusalem Post for better info about what was going on in the Mid east. The more I saw of Israeli politics the more shocked I became. They have ‘their’ BatScat crazies trying to control everything over there. Naive goy me had previously assumed that the very real threats of war, death and extermination faced on a daily basis would be a uniting/galvanizing force. Nope. I guess Jews really can’t have a “come to Jesus” moment no matter where they live. At some level too many of them exist to argue every inane mundane point just… Read more »
“Maybe NeoCon 2.0 is anti-immigration, just as the NeoCon 1.0 was anti-communist.” Being pro-immigration wasn’t always a hill for the Jewish elite to die on; at the turn of the 20th century the more labor oriented Jews had opinions that wouldn’t be much out of place with what you hear in these parts online. (I’m reminded of a line or two in the beginning of Seth Lipsky’s book “The Rise of Abraham Cahan”. The bulk of the book isn’t particularly memorable and Lipsky himself makes sure to signal from nearly beginning to end that he’s a solid goodthinker, basically an… Read more »
People like me try.
Jefferson wrote of “the subtle corps of sappers and miners constantly working underground to undermine our fabric”.It is our fate that neocons or their ilk will always be with us.
Interesting the subject of the neocons seems to keep coming up lately. Mike Enoch had an interesting discussion with a self-proclaimed neocon a few days ago. It’s worth checking out.
https://therightstuff.biz/2018/02/08/between-two-lampshades-isaac-cohen/
I was amused at this interview. My namesake appears to have no idea what it means to be a neocon, which lends itself to the notion that neocon is what a diaspora jew calls himself when he can’t bear the thought of being a true progressive. Hopefully he returns after more research and reflection for another round with Mike.
The Jewish guy seemed to agree with Mike on just about everything.
Enoch is a brave man. He’s never really waivered, other than when he got doxxed and went off the grid for a while. He stands by his beliefs and takes a back seat to no one and he is making his way out of the corporate world. I admire the guy.
People act as though Russian history began in October 1917 and before that there was nothing but formless protoplasm east of Poland. Hence the surprise that the Russians consider eastern Europe their own particular sphere of influence. Of course Putin and the gang will have an allergic reaction to bringing Ukraine into NATO. It puts a former vassal state into a single trigger alliance. Putin may be ex-KGB, a criminal gangster, etc. But he is Russian first. And inherits a long history and all the expectations and habits that come with it.
I actually like listening to Goldberg’s “Remnant” podcast (ripping off this title too), mainly to stay calibrated on that quadrant of the opposition. You are surely right on his multi-million dollar swing and a miss for Jeb(!)
good post…you just about nailed…I am not anti-jew…jews just about invented modern physics…I respect that…and I like the Israel model…but jews are now anti-white…and that is definitely end badly for them…
Maybe we need to change “A neoconservative is a liberal whose been mugged” to “A neoconservative is a liberal who said he was mugged but was actually running a Good Samaritan scam”
Perhaps Jonah Goldberg should read this book by the israeli historian, Azar Gat on historical ethnicity and nationalism “Nations: The Long History and Deep Roots of Political Ethnicity and Nationalism”. This have deep roots based in human nature;https://www.amazon.com/Nations-History-Political-Ethnicity-Nationalism/dp/1107400023
And Monty Python fan too ?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jdf5EXo6I68
Yeah I’m definitely in the right place. 😉
Yeah, and it took me a long time to figure these guys out. Back during the Bush II second term, as I was becoming disenchanted with “change the world”, I was listening to Michael Medved.
The issue of muslim immigration was raised by a caller and Medved said we can’t oppose any groups acceptance as immigrants because such would be anti-constitutional. I was confused by this, went looking and found no basis for this statement.
Shortly thereafter Medved’s father died, an American who emigrated to Israel.
Since then I have rethought many things.
Many things.
Zman, you forgot to use the echo-y triple parenthesis. (((Ben Shapiro))), (((Bill Kristol))), (((Jonah Goldberg))) and so on….
Norman Podhoretz is very much alive.
Yes. And, quite unlike his son, he endorsed Trump, even if without great enthusiasm.
Well, heck. I thought John Normansson’s daddy was dead, too.
Ha. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jdf5EXo6I68
I’ve been reading for about 52 years now.
I’ve been critically reading for about 25 years.
Not a jew, not a moslem, not an atheist, I’m a Christian. It’s weird to see the contempt / hatred for a religious group outstrip the capability to objectively evaluate the actions of a member of that group.
It’s interesting to see antisemitism shine through, even though writers try to hide their bias.
Y’all have fun with that, you’ve tainted my opinion of you.
Hope you can increase your objectivity.
There was no coup in Ukraine and the place is just as calm as it was before Maidan. The people of Ukraine simply didn’t want Yanukovich to sign them over to Russia. This one of several issues on which Buchanan is simply a crackpot. Yanukovich is still a fugitive from justice for giving the orders to the Berkut that resulted in the murders of 100 people on the Maidan.
There is a typo in my email addy. It should be mrg not mrh)