I’m having a bit of a crisis when it comes to politics and the state of America and conservatism. We’ve suffered through a lot of infighting recently, where friendly fire is doing more damage than anyone on the left has been able to inflict on conservatives. It’s not worth it to point fingers, which will keep the drama going, but if you know you know. There are lawsuits, secretly recorded conversations, accusations, leaked home videos, public beratings, internet wars, factions taking sides and lobbing insults at former friends, and more. The right is in total shambles. Many of us who’ve been here a long time are watching from our different corners completely disgusted, disappointed, and losing faith that this movement we spent our lives in might not be worth a damn.
What have we gained? This question was posed to me in a forceful way on appellate attorney Steve Gosney’s stream the other night by self-defense attorney and Second Amendment champion Andrew Branca. It hit kinda hard if I’m being honest. What have we gained? When I look around at the state of our culture, our institutions, our political class, our medical system, and the general state of liberty and freedom, the obvious answer is not much. We have lost every war we have waged.
“The other side of the aisle doesn’t care about your arguments. They don’t even understand your arguments,” said Branca. “Megan covered the Kavanaugh accusations,” he continued, referring to the outrageous assault on Brett Kavanaugh during his appointment to the Supreme Court when political operatives brought forward a handful of lying women to slander his character. “They were not based in fact. They were not based in truth. They were [finding out] can we impose our political authority over this? It’s very tribal. Those people did not care what the truth was. They cared whether or not they could achieve their political outcome. This notion that we are all reasonable people and can come to a solution does not work when people are setting fire to your building.”
Related: Memo to Conservatives: You Don’t Have to Agree on Everything — Only on Fighting the Left
“You have the radicals, then you have us, and then there’s a group in the middle,” continued Branca. “And the group in the middle has been generally poisoned by what is perceived as the mainstream media, who were presented as the objective purveyors of narrative. This is what reasonable people believe to be the situation in the world. Perhaps we can influence those people, but those of us on the right have never been able to do that because the mechanisms of communication, the mainstream media, have been controlled by the left. It’s like there’s a swimming pool with the reasonable people in the middle, and who is putting the water in the pool? It’s not the right. It’s been the left. How does the right get to a point where they are putting water in the pool?” You can watch this exchange starting at the 2:00:00 mark in the video below.
We’ve been trying for so long, and nothing we do seems to break through. The people have chosen the left. They want degeneracy, OnlyFans, access to porn all day long, transgenderism, high crime, inflation, vaccine mandates, and open borders. They want this. They keep voting for it. Those of us warning of the dangers to liberty, morality, family, and freedom have been not only ignored but completely silenced. We speak in a vacuum where only the faithful can hear us.
Recently, Scott Newgent, who regrets transition surgeries that scarred her biological female body, announced that she’s no longer going to be in the fight because the costs of trying to speak to people who refuse to hear are too high. I asked Scott about this recently. “The truth is that the right/left war mentality has made the middle BLIND,” said Newgent. “A new business model has emerged [relying on] the key phrase woke/unwoke [and] its LAZY activism. But the new brilliant business model is making a few social media stars & networks a fortune while ignoring good intentioned people chanting ‘Better to have an alive daughter than a dead son,’ and believing every word, as well as believing they are saving people.”
It doesn’t help that Newgent also had a recent run-in with a popular conservative brand. Nothing squelches the passion of a new convert than running into the cold reality of business-as-usual folks. Newgent wrote about a bad experience on Twitter.
Today is the last day of activism for me, I tried to rebook my flight but unable to afford that. I appreciate all the kind words, but EVERTHING I have done from “What is a woman” to all interviews, articles & in between has yielded a toll, without benefit. Stupid me didn’t realize activism is a business, or a dream of fame. This has never been a goal for me…Yesterday was a slap in the face with a real sting of truth. That truth? My voice and sacrifices do not yield in helping anyone. It’s no use, the depravity of society has been exchanged for social media stars, and I am an enormous narcissist to believe I can help, but I cannot. This UK trip to the base of democracy, seeing the land of the beginning has shined a spotlight that I am unable to deny. It’s no use!
I have beaten emotionally, physically, spiritually as well as financially for 4.5 years SCREAMING to STOP Transing Kids.
I have 2 GBNews segments & a Rally today that clicks into the emotional bank without depositing a thing to benefit my family.
Today is the last day of…
— Scott Newgent (@NotScottNewgent) April 30, 2023
This brings us back to the infighting I spoke of earlier. Far too many on “our side” really only care about themselves and their popularity, fame, and multi-million dollar deals. It’s not about the cause anymore. It’s about who gets to headline at CPAC, who gets invited on Fox News, and who can get the most followers on Twitter. It has led to a sort of hysterical blindness where celebrities on the right think fighting with one another is more important than fighting the left. Meanwhile, when new people with good input or ideas enter onto the scene they get immediately disenchanted by the ugly reality of Conservative Inc.
I’m extremely blessed, however, that in my very long career in conservative media I have worked with the most sincere (yet mostly ignored) philosophers in the business, and you can find them all right here at PJ Media. I find myself grateful that none of us have had to bear the burden of mega-fame or fortune because it appears to be a deadly virus against which only Rush Limbaugh seemed immune. Fame and fortune are scary things. The combination is a deadly poison pill for many who started out with a burning desire to do good. A little fame turned them into a more unattractive adult version of Veruca Salt stomping her feet and screaming, “I want it all!”
Perhaps it’s time to admit that conservatism as it is today has nothing to offer the country. If we can’t police ourselves, or even treat each other with basic dignity, why should anyone listen to what we have to say? When seen from the outside, the conservative side appears petty, greedy, immature, judgmental, and mean. Are these the people anyone is supposed to look to for guidance? We elevate people to stardom who are completely repulsive (see Ali Alexander’s underage sex scandal) and expect not to be tarred with the same brush. This is unsustainable.
I don’t know what the answer is.
In the meantime, if you’re wondering what to do about it, the words of Alan Watts may come in handy or at least provide some brevity to this dire situation. “Everything is falling apart. Don’t try to stop it! When you’re falling off a precipice it doesn’t do you any good to hang onto a rock that is falling with you….complete waste of energy in trying to prevent the world from falling apart. Don’t do it! And then you’ll be able to do something interesting with the free energy.”
The Bible echoes this idea in James. “What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes.”
Maybe we all need a new hobby.