Posturing Conservatism, Media Manipulation, and Organizing Fake Opposition
Dave Smith & James Lindsay’s Most Meaningless Debate Yet
One is a comedian, turned Jimmy Dore copycat political commenter. Smith is one of those people who lives in Joe Rogan’s shadows. The kind that never criticizes Rogan for fear of professional retribution. Dave Smith rose to public prominence by mixing with the “Misus” Caucus of the Libertarian Party. James Lindsay is an academic who calls himself an “anti-Communist.” Lindsay is the kind of guy who talks endlessly about intersectionality. Transgenderism. He’s more of an expert on these topics than AOC, while claiming to be an opponent of it. Lindsay is a prime example of how indoctrination works. While pretending to oppose these ideas, he promotes them. Both guys like to have unjudged “debates” while tweeting back & forth about these meaningless topics.
Commentators like Konstantin Kisin are experimenting with terms like “the woke right” to describe a reactionary counterpart: a subset of the right-wing political spectrum that mirrors the identity-obsessed, outrage-fueled tactics of the left. But “woke right” is clunky and imprecise.
Instead, I propose a better term: Nü Right.
What is the Nü Right?
The Nü Right represents a primarily online-based reactionary movement that mimics the tactics of the woke left while claiming to fight against it. Here’s what defines them:
- Identity Politics in Reverse:
The woke left centers its rhetoric around race, gender, and intersectional identity. The Nü Right flips the script, using white grievance politics, Christian nationalism, and appeals to “traditional values” as its identity-based mobilization tools. They don’t reject identity politics—they just repackage it. - Performative Outrage:
Outrage culture isn’t unique to the left. The Nü Right excels at it, canceling anyone who deviates from their ideological purity tests, whether that’s disloyalty to Trump, skepticism about election conspiracies, or insufficient religiosity. - Conspiracy Peddling:
The Nü Right’s fuel is conspiracy theory culture. They push narratives about election fraud, global cabals, or moral panics about schools and drag queens—not to uncover truth, but to keep people angry, distracted, and emotionally invested in their outrage machine. - Content over Substance:
Like the woke left’s obsession with social media campaigns and virtue signaling, the Nü Right relies on producing emotionally charged online content—podcasts, viral tweets, and YouTube rants. It’s all noise and no solutions.
No Vision, No Progress:
The Nü Right doesn’t offer policies, ideas, or solutions. Like the woke left, their energy is spent tearing down institutions and fueling division, not building anything better.
The Nü Right and the Co-Opted “Deep State” Narrative
One of the most insidious ways the Nü Right manipulates its audience is through its hijacking of the “deep state” narrative.
The Origins of “Deep State”
Originally popularized in British fiction, the term “deep state” was later adopted by Mike Lofgren, a former Congressional staffer, to describe a real phenomenon:
- Unelected Bureaucrats: The entrenched layers of government workers and appointees who operate beyond public accountability.
- Government Contractors: Private firms acting as shields for government corruption and abuse.
- Wall Street and Silicon Valley: Corporate elites who manipulate the financial system for profit, creating economic instability and inequality.
Lofgren’s deep state wasn’t some shadowy cabal—it was a complex web of unaccountable institutions, operating to perpetuate their own power.
How the Nü Right Distorts It
Figures like Vivek Ramaswamy, Elon Musk, Peter Thiel, and Marc Andreessen have co-opted this concept, positioning themselves as the champions fighting the deep state. But here’s the irony:
They are the very people Mike Lofgren was warning about.
- Vivek Ramaswamy: A biotech billionaire who profits off the very system he critiques.
- Elon Musk: A tech mogul who relies on billions in government subsidies while posturing as anti-government.
- Peter Thiel: A venture capitalist who supplies surveillance technology to the state.
- Marc Andreessen: A Silicon Valley elite who thrives on the same system he claims to oppose.
These figures have twisted the deep state narrative into a caricature. Instead of addressing systemic corruption, they use the term to rally outrage while shielding their own complicity in the very structures they pretend to fight.
False Solutions, Real Problems
The Nü Right doesn’t dismantle the deep state—they protect it. Their performative outrage distracts from real accountability and reform. They manufacture outrage, but their “solutions” further entrench the same systems of unaccountable power they profit from.
This bait-and-switch is identical to the woke left’s habit of posturing against inequality while propping up the same corporate and institutional systems that perpetuate it.
The Woke Left and Nü Right: Two Sides of the Same Coin
The Nü Right isn’t a true alternative to the woke left. It’s their mirror image. Both thrive on:
- Identity Politics: Both weaponize identity to mobilize their base.
- Outrage Culture: Both rely on keeping people angry and distracted.
- Performative Solutions: Neither tackles root problems—they just offer noise and division.
The result? Cultural stagnation. Both movements are barriers to progress, feeding off each other to keep society locked in a cycle of outrage.
Why Nü Right Fits
The term Nü Right captures the movement’s:
- Digital Roots: Their rise is tied to online content creation.
- Performative Nature: Like the “woke left,” their focus is on outrage, not solutions.
- Emptiness: They’re not about fixing anything—they’re about preserving their own power.
The Nü Right isn’t here to help society move forward. First they pretended to oppose “woke,” which most people who discuss can’t define or identify historically. Next, they nakedly aligned with members of the “woke” agenda. Eventually they will be seen for what they are: sustaining the same cycles of outrage and manipulation that keep us trapped.
Breaking Free from the Cycle
If we want real progress, we need to reject both the woke left and the Nü Right. Both movements are distractions. They don’t solve problems—they perpetuate them.
The hijacking of the deep state narrative is just one example of how these groups thrive on confusion and manipulation. The real challenge isn’t picking a side—it’s rejecting the game entirely.
Therefore, let’s demand more: more accountability, more vision, and more courage to tackle the systems that are actually broken. The Nü Right, like the woke left, isn’t the answer. It’s just another obstacle in the way of meaningful change.
If you care about the “debate” between Smith & Lindsay, you can see Smith’s response, which is somehow an hour+
