Many years ago, when millennials treated the Harry Potter books with a weirdly religious reverence, people used to say, “Read another book.” The freakout about Greta Gerwig’s casting of Meryl Streep as the voice of the still-a-male-lion Aslan in the upcoming Narnia adaptation... 🧵

Right-wing anti-immigration panics aren't new.

Do you ever feel sorry for the historical John Birch or Virginia Dare?

Trumpism must to be repudiated root and branch. It starts with the impeachment of figures who were obviously malignant from the start. www.thebulwark.com/p/impeach-th...

Due to the nature of conservatism (opposed to social change, collapse of orders) and the way social mores do change over time, it’s inevitable that a certain number of conservatives will become totally despairing about society. The paleocon archetype is inevitable.

A lire pour connaître l'histoire totalement méconnue en France du carlisme étatsunien, mouvement catholique, autoritaire, intégriste, hispanophile, dont est issue une partie du mouvement "pro-vie"

Joshua Tait@joshuatait.bsky.social · 2w ago

This is on my mind again. In part because I frequently walk past the some of the sites recounted here, because I read an a riveting new memoir by a Traditionalist Catholic, and because of the continual resonances of a political movement thought to be dead. joshuatait.substack.com/p/stitching-...

This is on my mind again. In part because I frequently walk past the some of the sites recounted here, because I read an a riveting new memoir by a Traditionalist Catholic, and because of the continual resonances of a political movement thought to be dead. joshuatait.substack.com/p/stitching-...

“Stitching Banners to an Exiled King”

Triumph, Radical Traditionalism, and the Temptation of Despair

joshuatait.substack.com

Guy's gonna keep trying to rename bodies of water until he feels he's sufficiently softened us up to get away with changing Lake Superior to Lake Trump. apnews.com/article/trum...

Trump plans to announce the US will call the Persian Gulf the Arabian Gulf, officials tell AP

President Donald Trump plans to announce next week that the U.S. will refer to the Persian Gulf as the Arabian Gulf or the Gulf of Arabia.

apnews.com

"Revealed preferences" or, as I like to call them, original sin.

This post did not get the love it deserved. Shame on you all.

Joshua Tait@joshuatait.bsky.social · last mo.

I am here for Straussian readings of the Census voter report.

Put on California Dreamin' and enjoy this stupendous review. www.thebulwark.com/p/the-end-of...

End of the Endless Summer

The Eve Babitz revival offered an intoxicating escape from our modern literary anxieties. Her final, briefly wonderful book of letters brings us back down to earth.

thebulwark.com

I am here for Straussian readings of the Census voter report.

National Review on Kevin Phillips, 1978 / The Argument on JD Vance 2026. Plus ça change!

As soon as I heard about the border crossing at Ceuta, I knew we were in for Camp of the Saints discourse. And sure enough, here's Juliette Heinzlef on the one novel everyone on the anti-immigrant right claims to have read. www.thebulwark.com/p/the-dystop...

The Dystopian Novel Fueling the Far Right’s Migration Myths

From Ceuta to Washington, hard-right leaders regularly cite Jean Raspail’s 1973 novel to transform real-world border events into apocalyptic threats to Western civilization.

thebulwark.com

The easiest political pitch in the world right now is probably: “everything is too expensive, Trump is ripping us off, we gotta hold him accountable, Happy Thanksgiving and Merry Christmas.”

The Secretary of Trans Sports?

"I’m too old to change my ways. No Dale Carnegie for me. But perhaps some Democratic politicians could benefit from a dose?" @billkristolbulwark.bsky.social on Blanche and @joshuatait.bsky.social on the right's conflict over postliberalism in today's Morning Shots lnk.thebulwark.com/4yVMUZm

The True Texas Project and Young Republicans are hosting multiple events in Texas next month with the head of a self-styled white nationalist "think tank," the White Papers Policy Institute. WPPI promotes mass deportations and "remigration." It has strong ties to major white nationalist groups.

The Dink isn't a good movie, but it did have a great subtle gag. Two people talk about a new (fictional) Malcom Gladwell and one of them says it argues The Beatles were so good because they practiced.

I don’t remember posting this but it’s funny and I was right.

Joshua Tait@joshuatait.bsky.social · last yr.

The answer both now and in 1959 is West Coast Straussians.

I was in the i Paper yesterday on the tech right and how they found their way to Trump---and what might happen next. inews.co.uk/news/world/t...

Why the tech bros really backed Trump - and why it could backfire

Silicon Valley's elite gambled on the President, but the unregulated surge of AI and crypto could see a political backlash

inews.co.uk

Oh hey it’s me in the Bulwark going after the Bridge Colby aka The Cheese for his very dumb approach to strategic alliances.

The Bulwark@thebulwark.com · 2mo ago

"He volunteered to launder Trump’s bellicose, bizarre acts by finding an intellectual coherence that isn’t there." And he's not that good at it. @joestieb.bsky.social on Elbridge Colby:

In recent weeks, people have talked incessantly of the new “Odyssey” movie. They have argued and fought. The below essay by @joshuatait.bsky.social is about passions surrounding Tolkien. What more could a literary artist want, than to be fought over ad infinitum? www.thebulwark.com/p/how-the-te...

How the Tech Right Learned to Love Mordor

The history of the American right’s long romance with J.R.R. Tolkien, from earnest fandom to arms-industry branding exercise.

thebulwark.com

thoughts on finishing Andor season 2: benjamin bratt is so good as bail organa the show is great but i would have loved to see more of the internal politics of the rebel alliance that are highlighted somewhat in the final episode we need a show centered on the mon calamari

I had great fun writing this for The Bulwark, combining the type of conservative intellectual history I relish with culture commentary and some (sub-)Devil's Dictionary-type gags thrown in for good measure. How the Tech Right Learned to Love Mordor open.substack.com/pub/thebulwa...

How the Tech Right Learned to Love Mordor

The history of the American right’s long romance with J.R.R. Tolkien, from earnest fandom to arms-industry branding exercise.

open.substack.com

On the messy, often contradictory, history of the love of J.R.R. Tolkien on the American right—from the old days of 'National Review' to the obsession a lot of Peter Thiel-affiliated tech types have with naming businesses after LOTR things. www.thebulwark.com/p/how-the-te...

How the Tech Right Learned to Love Mordor

The history of the American right’s long romance with J.R.R. Tolkien, from earnest fandom to arms-industry branding exercise.

thebulwark.com

I had great fun writing this for The Bulwark, combining the type of conservative intellectual history I relish with culture commentary and some (sub-)Devil's Dictionary-type gags thrown in for good measure. How the Tech Right Learned to Love Mordor open.substack.com/pub/thebulwa...

How the Tech Right Learned to Love Mordor

The history of the American right’s long romance with J.R.R. Tolkien, from earnest fandom to arms-industry branding exercise.

open.substack.com

Look, as nuts as the right has been on The Odyssey, this is just a regular day at the office for Armond White. You can’t extrapolate from this.

Bill Grueskin@bgrueskin.bsky.social · 2mo ago

They’re having a completely normal one over at the National Review this weekend

Maybe if the Daily Wire had spent all that money on a super-duper historically accurate Odyssey film, it wouldn’t have been such a financial disaster!

A very smart but also very fun piece. A real labor of love about Warhammer (and its dark appeal to the right.) open.substack.com/pub/thebulwa...

In the Grim Darkness of the Far Future, There Is Only Culture War

How a forty-year-old satire of fascism became a meme for Trump, a flashpoint over women in sci-fi, and—for some fans—an actual political ideal.

open.substack.com