Revenge of the Normies

As American Leftists Stumble and the Dissident Right is Closer to Irrelevance, the Center Left is the Hottest Its Been This Decade

Note: Ross Barkan wrote a great piece in the NY Times Magazine (in print today) that mentions me and my concept of “personality exhaustion.” I link to his NYT article later in the piece. For that reason, I decided to move the effusive gratitude up top as an editorial note, so it doesn’t interfere with the tone of my piece. OK let’s roll up our sleeves and get to the grimness.

Last November, a little more than a month after October 7, I warned the pro-Gaza youth that relying on TikTok may weaken their message:

In the same way that people who have spiritual awakenings can easily lose them to even deeper levels of delusion, moments of massive societal awakenings can get mired in even flashier distractions.

In our current moment, we have seen the awakening of a new left as well as a deeper skepticism of the media than ever before. But we cannot and should not avoid the fact that all this is happening within a media ecosystem that still rewards stimulation and egotistical delusion.

Now? Here

we

are.

Because I am lazy I do not want to drive traffic towards pointless TikTok personality beefs, it will have to suffice to say this all started when an Arab female TikTok personality butted heads with a Black TikTok personality who was defending the decision to vote for Kamala Harris for President. There is currently a rift between Black activists who went from pro-Palestine to pro-Kamala and Arab activists who are prioritizing Gaza. Of course the battle lines are not this neat. There are plenty of Black activists that are pro-Gaza and anti-Kamala as well as Arab activists who advise against infighting with allies, regardless of how they vote. But TikTok was and is the unofficial hub of Gaza activism and algorithms favor clear-cut conflicts over nuance. As mentioned before, TikTok is too large an arena to nurture anything, especially something as delicate as the alt-left. What’s more, unlike most leftists, the center left can meme now.

While the alt-left is mired in bickering, the center-left, through the K-hive, has infected the Internet with its girls-and-gays comedic sensibility. The memes had primarily spread through TikTok, which makes a better platform for mainstream political campaigns that use pop music than it does for earnest leftist political analysis.

Not since the ‘00s has the center left legacy media held the online conversation by the tail like this. In the ‘00s, online fervor grew around Obama, who was already being feted by CNN and MSNBC. Between January 2009 and September 2023, the Internet —through Tumblr, Twitter, etc. — has dictated the terms of the political conversation and legacy media played catch-up. After October 7, there was a rift between center-left legacy media and the increasingly pro-Gaza online discourse.

When cable news and newspapers pushed forth the narrative that Biden should step down and perhaps Harris should step up, this energized the K-Hive. Much like online fandom for media properties gets energized when they hear a new one is gonna drop, the K-Hive got its meme game together when they heard Harris was likely to run if Biden stepped down. Charli XCX may have thrown the match that started the fire that is KamalaMania, but there were plenty of TikTok video memes from the K-Hive to keep kindling the fire. But it was the center left legacy media that placed the logs for the fire and dictated the terms of the discourse this time, for the first time in 16 years.

But Tim Walz set the tone of the campaign by calling the Republicans “weird.” By changing the focus from “fascist” to “weird,” it deflated the right’s rhetoric from something formidable to something awkward. Walz dug into his schoolteacher bag of tricks by “calling Republicans ‘weird,’ knowing it makes a bully crumble.”

One thing that’s normal: having a leader. The Blue MAGA center-left has a clear leader with Kamala Harris. One salient difference between the alt-left of 2024 and the New Left of 1968 is the alt-left has no clear leadership:

In 1968, the protest movements that challenged Humphrey had names, faces, figureheads. Today there are no Tom Haydens, Abbie Hoffmans or Jerry Rubins headed to Chicago.

It’s not for lack of trying though. For a long time, photojournalist Motaz Azaiza was the unofficial leader of the movement. His photos, videos and livestreams made him a central figure for the cause. Two things though: he left Gaza months ago to survive; he is a photojournalist, not a writer or a speaker. He cannot deliver a stirring, impassioned oratory.

Meanwhile, the center-left not only has a new leader, but a new normal. It may seem like calling Republicans “weird” is a glass house. situation, but for the past twenty years, from the Gawker era of broad hipster support for gay rights, to now, the Internet has helped codify a new status quo. One that is nice to gays, Blacks, everybody. A word like “weird” is ironically weird itself because its meaning is so slippery and protean. But trust and believe “weird” in the Walz era means “being weird about gays and minorities.” Being “normal” in the Harris-Walz era means complying with language and behavior that won’t raise any red flags for HR or corporate. Obama’s victory in ‘08 was a victory for those who wanted change. Harris winning this November will mean reinforcing the status quo that has been built from 2004 on.

Walz targeted Trump and his fellow Republicans with the word “weird.” But make no mistake: the alt-left absolutely caught a stray in that fight. How easy is it to paint leftist protesters wearing keffiyehs and banging tablas as “weird”? Especially when they do not fit into the politically correct status quo. Some protesters may have known what they were sacrificing when they were protesting. Others may have thought that, since universities like Columbia began to look favorably on the student protests of the ‘60s, these students would be rewarded, like they were when they marched for BLM and gay rights. But as I’ve said before and linked to numerous times in the past, identity politics in America was always meant to uphold American hegemony. Since the pro-Gaza movement challenges it on the global scale, it will not get any support from any establishment for a long time, if ever.

This is why I have advocated for a revolution above and beyond politics. It is not just the situation in Gaza that needs to change. It’s the way we talk about it. Till now, the greatest cultural contribution the alt-left has given us is The Bonk Song — a viral novelty song. Reading the latest Briffin Glue has not only convinced me that we need a mesoculture, but that there is a hunger for one.

The center-left are now thriving culturally. Charli XCX gave Kamala Harris a touch of subcultural cool by declaring her “brat.” But the campaign was quickly seized by the clutches of general pop fandom, with Beyonce giving the campaign her blessing to use her song “Freedom” on the trail. This is why pop culture’s value is limited: ultimately, it will always serve as the elite mouthpiece.

Speaking of elite, the downtown Manhattan dissident right has their own soul searching to do now. The alt-right were the ones who called center-left Hilary supporters “normies” in 2016. As the Democrats have finally embraced their normie-ness online and offline, the downtown fringe movement is looking weirder than ever. Dimes Square has never felt more irrelevant than it does now. It seems like its cultural moment will be forever relegated to the early ‘20s, with the line graph bottoming out in the mid ‘20s. Even the less popular alt-left feels more “now” than Dimes Square does. As if to prove this point, longtime pro-Palestine advocate Norman Finkelstein recently spoke at Sovereign House. The alt-right 2.0 not only caught a stray from Walz with his “weird” rant, they also got hit with friendly fire from JD Vance’s own brand of “hoe-scaring” weirdness. JD Vance is the most public-facing representative of the Paypal Mafia, which also funds much of what happens in the dissident right space. The only thing weirder than a President being tied to Vance is a radical artistic movement. JD Vance’s “cultural” Christian-based support of families comes off as odd Too bad it’s the same tack the dissident right has. Family values will always have a stronger effect coming from an old Evangelical than it will a ketamine-snorting blogger obsessed with HP Lovecraft.

Ryan Broderick recently insisted that there was a radical change in the culture since Kamala started her presidential bid. I will reluctantly agree that it feels like pop culture was frozen during the Biden era and it’s starting to move again now, but following the “frozen pop” logic, we are now experiencing the pop culture we should have had in 2021. Incidentally, this logic is not that far from the truth. COVID and the Hollywood strikes may have led to more delayed releases than in any other decade. That said, it still feels like, even this late in the decade, our pop culture is still taking its cues from the 2010s. From the article:

The arrival of Vice President Kamala Harris's presidential campaign, the Brat Summer meme, Kendrick Lamar's thorough evisceration of Drake, and the attempted assassination of Donald Trump have made the last three and a half years seem like some kind of weird side quest, a political and cultural intermission. Even the success of this summer's Deadpool & Wolverine, a movie built entirely around disregarding the sacred canon of Marvel's long-running cinematic universe, supports this. Timothée Chalamet and Zendaya are proving movie stars are back. The pop-star monopolies of Taylor Swift and Drake are faltering as homegrown Gen Z artists like Chappell Roan are pulling in historically large crowds at festivals and club kids are doing nose drugs at Boiler Room sets.

Much of this list (Deadpool’s comeback, movie stars returning to power) reads like a return to normalcy. The one item on the list that comes close to matching the chaos of the times, Kendrick vs. Drake, is two aging ‘10s rappers battling each other.

But this may be more by design than we are acknowledging. If the vibe shift was partly defined by Gen Z taking over the cultural mantle from Millennials, then all this could be Millennials clicking their heels and wishing they were home, dictating culture again.

The Blue MAGA movement is just as enchanted with nostalgia as original flavor MAGA is. While Red MAGA daydreams about the Reagan ‘80s, Blue MAGA looks at the picture of Tim Walz holding a pig above and wistfully sighs about sweet, Obama-era relics like Parks and Recreation and Schitt’s Creek. Normal, inoffensive comedy.

It’s easy to tut-tut about all this sentimentality, but what alternatives were there? As I predicted in my piece on personality exhaustion, a capitalist society can only go so long without stars and personalities. But, just like there are no leaders for the alt-left counterculture, there are no charismatic public figures either. That goes for Gen Z by the way. Contrary to what Broderick said a few paragraphs ago, I am so sorry, but Chappell Roan is not replacing Taylor Swift. The new generation does not have its Bob Dylan yet. Safe to say by now that it is not Honor Levy. Not only are there no major personalities in the alt-left, but the TikTok micropersonalities in the alt-left are letting their egos clash as if they are Kendrick and Drake. It’s the only language they know. To use the recovery language I used in my personality exhaustion piece, they are letting personalities eclipse principles.

Another difference between our current moment and 1968: in 1968, mainstream celebrities were jumping on the anti-war bandwagon. Not only is this not happening now, but there is a real danger that this time, the activists come across as irrelevant and overly demanding.

The same can be said for the Trump camp though. The shooting on July 13 — and the iconic raised fist photo — ended up being the highest point for his public profile. It could only go downhill from there. His ranting can only come across as “more of the same” compared to the more youthful vigor of the Harris campaign.

By “more of the same", I mean more of the same chaos. From 2013 to now, public discourse has been a shouting match. When I predicted a return to nuance back in October, I predicted it too early. But that is exactly what this Muslim TikToker is advocating here, at one point telling fellow activists advocating for Gaza that if they do not know how to advocate without alienating the people they are trying to attract — if all they can do is whine about “tone policing" — they should stop:

@ruwa4georgiaI’m sure this will get me in trouble but it’s time to start calling out bad tactics and bad strategy #uspolitics #tacticalvoting #electoralorganizing

Tiktok failed to load.

Enable 3rd party cookies or use another browser

To the credit of many activists on TikTok, they are increasingly aware of how counterproductive the infighting is. This could be a result of the fact that there is no legacy media sweepstakes for these kids to win. All they have is each other. In the BLM era, arguments over words and tone could take down a competing influencer and move you closer to the book deal. But it may turn out that quieter voices bring people closer to listen, as opposed to the shouting of the past eleven years.

Those of you who read this Substack know that I love comparing our moment to the ‘60s. Biden stepping down, along with the April Columbia protests, have spread that idea to mainstream media as well. Harris winning would be reminiscent of a different time though: 1976. Perhaps I was looking at this wrong. Maybe the ‘10s were the ‘60s and the Gaza protests were to the counter culture what the Red Army Faction was in the ‘70s. After Carter’s victory, America was ready to forget about Vietnam and LSD and jump right into celebratory disco and cocaine sex. If America is similarly tired of protesting in November, it may be time for a punk counterculture though, like the ‘70s, it is more likely to flourish across the pond than here.

The DNC convention starts tomorrow. Thousands are predicted to be there protesting in Chicago. If Kamala wins the presidency, it might make the protesters look like scarf-wearing weirdos. It might also mean that this is, again, 1968 in reverse. 1968 was entered into all the history books that supported American electoralism in order to teach the lesson that hippies not voting gave America worse leadership. Harris winning gives the rebels a new status quo to rebel against. Wanting to cling to normalcy is understandable when the world is weirding, but, as Viktoriia Vasileva said in her latest Substack:

Clinging onto what’s real is the knee-jerk response to the state of the world where the lines between offline and virtual, marketable and useful, machine and human have been blurred. But what if instead of fighting to stay grounded, we leaned into letting go? If social media isn’t real, why not do something crazy with it? If the machines are threatening creativity, why not use them in your art? If luxury is nothing more than a concept, why not have a little fun?

Magic looks like fun. And both campaigns seem keen on keeping us under a spell. Perhaps it’s time to fight magic with magic.