Note: The weekly Taki post is up. This week I respond to a critic who took me to task for saying mean things about libertarianism. Behind the green door there is the Sunday podcast on some news items of the past week.
Turning Point USA is one of the many grifts from Conservative Inc. aimed at corralling young people into the pointless enterprise of modern conservatism. It is the creation of the late William T. Montgomery, a former marketing guru. He decided to turn Charlie Kirk into the modern day Billy Ray Valentine of conservatism. The result was Turning Point USA, a campus group that holds events around the country. They host 6 National Summits and 8 Regional Conferences each year.
The most recent event, which was staged in Florida this past weekend, ended in a bit of controversy when TP-USA decided to ban someone named Brandi Love. She was scheduled to address a group of teenagers as a VIP. Brandi Love, in addition to being a distinguished contributor to conservative publications, is also a retired porn actress who advertises herself as such on-line. She now uses the skills that made her a star in the oldest profession to be a star in the second oldest one.
TP-USA knew who she was before they extended the invitation and they provided her with VIP access as an honored guest. Clearly, they saw nothing wrong with having an over-the-hill porn star promoting her work to teenagers. The reason they shifted gears is they were getting mocked for it by their critics on the Right. Their critics had a field day with it as another example of how TP-USA is just another grift peddling degeneracy in the name of conservative values.
In fairness to the organizers of TP-USA, they probably assumed there was nothing wrong with having an aging porn actress at their event. After all, the Federalist website has her as a featured contributor. Sean Davis, one of the founders of the site, must think she is acceptable for young people. His partner, Ben Domenech, made this clear on Twitter over the weekend. Later he blamed anti-Semites for getting her booted, which sets up an interesting moral dynamic.
It is these sorts of things that suggest the universe has a sense of humor. Brandi Love is the prefect representative of conservatism. She is an old whore well past her prime, desperate to keep what little audience she can. Of course, conservatism is also an old whore well past its prime willing to degrade itself for attention. When you look at it objectively, Brandi Love should have been the keynote speaker. She is the near perfect representative of the conservative movement.
It would take a heart of stone not to laugh at this, but it points to the primary reason that conservatism was a complete failure. It was always hollow. Despite all their pretensions, they never really stood for anything. Conservatism was nothing more than a way for the unpopular kids to get a chance to sit at the cool kids’ table. The reason they welcomed an old porn actress to their ranks was to show the cool kids they were not a bunch of stuck up prudes. They liked degeneracy too!
Beyond that, it shows that the people running TP-USA know they have nothing to offer, so they have to rely on gimmicks. Last year they got grief for having scantily clad bimbos with t-shirt guns on stage like it was spring break. They are not offering young people a chance to be a part of something important. They are offering them a chance to get drunk and have easy access to whores. Clubs in Ft. Lauderdale have more dignity than to use these tactics to get attention.
Of course, we live in an age in which conspiracy theories turn out to be previews of tomorrow’s news, so you have to wonder if this was really an error. TP-USA has been pushing degeneracy to young people since its inception. They used to have promiscuous homosexuals speak to college audiences to promote sodomy. That is how Nick Fuentes got famous. He got his fans to show up at events and ask people like Charlie Kirk why he thought anal sex was a conservative principle.
Given the times, one can be forgiven for wondering if the whole point of this operation is to be the other side of the sandwich for young people. One side is left-wing antiwhite politics, while the alternative is libertine degeneracy. It is not as if this old porn actress tried to crash the party. People at the very top of the organization reached out and invited her as a VIP. It is impossible for them to claim they did not know who she was, as that is the only reason anyone knows who she is.
It is a good example of how the market corrupts. The people running this group are sure that the marketplace must always decide. That means they measure their own efforts in terms of box office. The more tickets they sell, the better they think they are doing, even if they are peddling smut to teenagers in order to do it. They probably think this was a good result, as it got them some unearned media. Conservatism submitted to the marketplace and became just another carny act in the process.
The good news in all of this is TP-USA seems to be collapsing. Their event was lightly attended, and their on-line shows had crickets as a soundtrack. Despite the fact that young people today are terribly naïve, they still retain the ability to see through these efforts to exploit them. Yesterday men peddling nostalgia for an age that will never return are not going to get far with young people worried about being hated minorities, even if the sales pitch is festooned with smut.
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