So a Jew hater is getting praised. John Mac Ghlionn, a Splice Today contributor, recently appeared here with “Why Conservative Masculinity Feels So Fake.” The article’s better written than most pieces you’ll find on the internet. But it’s an article in praise of Nick Fuentes, so its logic isn’t all that tight.
I read “Conservative Masculinity” twice, the second time to make sure of something. Here it is: the author never says what Nick Fuentes is telling all these young men. We hear how the advice of the usual right-o-sphere pundits is inadequate. We hear that Fuentes takes an overall approach that the author approves of (“he treats young men as agents, not problems”). We don’t hear what advice he’s given, what principles he’s enunciated, what lessons he’s drawn. This piece is a big hole with some words around it.
I mentioned the writing, which is indeed good. Try this: “Real masculinity isn’t a life script. It’s a disposition. It’s the ability to bear responsibility without applause. To act when it would be easier not to. To endure without broadcasting. To build something real—work, family, craft, community—without turning it into content.” The author’s got a knack; somewhere a candidate needs him. On the other hand, note that being a man somehow reduces to not being an influencer. No applause, no broadcasting, no content, just living and doing and bearing. But Fuentes, unfortunately, is an influencer and what has he ever built besides an audience?
The author resents the right’s media blowhards but thinks the answer is to find some different media blowhard. I hope he escapes from that trap. Podcasts and influencers shouldn’t shape a person’s life. They can inform and entertain, they can provide talking points, they can bring fellow believers into a comfortable group hug. But they can’t raise you.
Everything else aside, the article praises an anti-Semite and racist. “I won’t relitigate the worst things he has said,” the author tells us. There’s no need to litigate. Fuentes is a bigot. State that plainly and you can say something worthwhile. Shluff it off and whatever follows is beside the point.
Mensch. As words go, man’s shorter and better than woman. I suppose we snagged it for ourselves back in the day, when the primal shots were being called. Since then it’s been wrapped into many observations about life and human nature, standing in for both sexes because it’s compact and because men dominate society (or did). “Conservative Masculinity” provides another example. I think any person of character should be able to “bear responsibility without applause” and “act when it would be easier not to” and “endure without broadcasting,” and I think their goal in life would be to build “work, family, craft, community.” If you haven’t known any women with these traits, you live in a monastery or Mar-a-Lago. I’ll add that the traits add up to a word and it’s in Yiddish.