The blog Cafe Hayek often has some worthwhile links, and yesterday had an especially good one to an article explaining the Postmodern Right.
"Nothing good will come of the political right adopting the postmodernist playbook of the political left. Postmodernism is a strain of philosophy that constantly questions the rules, pokes holes in objective truths, and turns the serious business of metaphysics (is reality out there or in our heads?), epistemology (how we know), morality, and—yes—politics into a skeptic mishmash of perspectives and performances. It’s fundamentally a negation of Enlightenment philosophy which champions reality, reason, objective truth, rationality, individualism, respect for and protection of individual rights, limited government...
"MAGA and Trump fit postmodernism to a T, embracing many of its classic attitudes—mostly without bothering about the philosophy behind. In the MAGA universe, truth is less about cold, hard facts and more about what sticks—what sounds right, feels true, or gets shouted loudest...MAGA’s appeal is not about nuance or introspection but about feeling—group chants, red hats, and bombastic speeches create a shared experience. It’s politics you don’t just watch but participate in; through cheers, memes, and retweets, everyone gets a role in the show. This is pure postmodernism: the medium is the message, and the message is whatever credibility the crowd decides to grant it."
Exactly. The crowd which preaches most loudly that 'facts don't care about your feelings,' is largely a feelings-driven movement. In the case of the New Right, their interpretation of what 'facts' are is not based on Reason, but often on raw emotion fueled by mob psychology.
The Bacchanalia staged on Sunday in an Arizona sport-stadium---ostensibly to memorialize slain Christian Nationalist provocateur Charlie Kirk---was an example of what the author called a “who cares if the narrative makes sense, as long as it works attitude." The spectacle---complete with dramatic, pyrotechnic displays and political celebrities---had many online comments comparing it to a Superbowl Half-Time show. To my mind, the pseudo-Christian wallpapering gave it the feel of a Megachurch Praise-a-Thon. Very probably the event was managed by the same people who manage these other spectacles.
The New Right's most obsequious toadies in the Corporate Media really outdid themselves setting even lower bars than they've already crossed in reducing the Narrative to the Lowest Common Denominators imaginable.
Fox News:
LifeSite:
Tucker Carlson:
All of this would be revolting enough by itself. At least with Trash-Culture theatrics, we mostly can wince and ignore them. The key difference here is that this is government-organized theater: and, because it designed to translate in Official Policy, it is not spectacle, it is propaganda. In 2021, we explained here how such systems of orchestrated propaganda function. As we showed in that series, the Left Wing of the Uniparty has no monopoly on using such tactics upon the general public.
Essentially, propagandists begin with a Basic Doctrine that they wish to promote. They float the idea through their shills in the Media to generate discussion. The next step is to reduce the Basic Doctrine to slogans and sound-bites and finally condensing it into a symbol which stands for the main idea. Soviet propagandists explained the process in a simple diagram:
The Postmodern counterparts of these earlier propagandists have augmented the earlier system with a Strategy of Tension: the 'Basic Doctrine' of today relies on creating an 'Enemy Within;' hence the necessity of encouraging social division and mutual suspicion. (Earlier authoritarian regimes promoted the idea of maintaining a stable society under threat from external enemies). The end goal is the same: to condition the public into accepting a powerful elite as their only hope of gaining or maintaining security and stability.
In this case, the 'Basic Doctrine' of the Postmodern Right is the creation of a strong central Government. It moves to the next step by promoting authoritarian means to effect those ends (e.g. mass deportations, the establishment of State Security Police forces, building concentration camps, etc.). It then reinforces the doctrines with slogans ('we are at war with internal enemies who want you dead!'). In this case, Charlie Kirk has been elevated to a symbol of 'what we are fighting against.' Throughout Sunday's rally, the Basic Doctrine was salted all throughout the performance. President Trump received a standing ovation for suggesting that crushing opposition was a holy crusade dedicated to Kirk's memory:
Then, Stephen Miller, the Evil Genius behind much of White House policy drew cheers, adding this:
The author of the linked article concluded with an appeal to some serious soul-searching among American Conservatives. This appeal needs to be extended to American Christians. Is the New Right and Christian Nationalism the definition of what we stand for? Or is it a dangerous innovation contrary to our traditions?
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