Since I first began paying attention to the on-line world, I’ve constantly been aware of the free-floating anger out there – anger whose focus has varied over the years. Anyone who has anywhere sensitive internet antenna is also aware, so it shouldn’t come as much of a surprise. Conservativish individuals mostly keep the anger pretty restrained, as we tend to be adults, with adult responsibilities who have learned through bitter experience to keep the fury reined in. We think before we act, in accordance with what Napoleon is said to have counseled; never letting the anger rise higher than ones’ chin. We’ll leave the foaming-at-the-mouth insane, violent acting out to wet-behind-the-ears college students who purely don’t know any better (and probably never will, the way that higher education is going), the sexual-deviant freaks of Antifa, angry customers in a fast-food place pissed-off because of a mistaken order, and the screaming hags of The View – both those on camera and those who only watch their tantrums at home.

However, now we have come to recognize that there is also a substantial pool of free-floating anger on the conservativish side – or rather, those who might more usefully be described as conservative by default, because they are young, male, straight and white. Not being an exotic “other”, either racially or sexually – they been pretty much exiled to a kind of mental desert island over the last couple of decades, while being loudly blamed for every imaginable social crime – slavery, imperialism, the offensive male gaze and for all I know, the heartbreak of psoriasis. Being young, uncertain of themselves in an insecure world, tender and readily bruised, many of those young, white, straight males have taken it to heart and withdrawn, and I can’t much blame them for that. It can’t be a ball of laughs, being on the outs and treated with contempt by most mainstream culture outlets as presently exists.

In daring to go out for a drink and chat up an attractive female stranger, in hopes of a date or maybe something more intimate, personal and long-lasting, the poor inexperienced, uncertain young male runs the risk of being treated like a potential rapist, or at the very worst in the long term, as a combination punching bag and limitless ATM. For all of that, the withdrawn young cohort of men – unless they find a way out and make some kind of mental private peace – get scorned and stigmatized as incels, freakishly devoted to gaming, certain social media circles and essentially checking out of involvement, sexual or otherwise.

I was vaguely aware of Charlie Kirk and TPUSA being one of those out there helping young men make sense of the situation and work out a way of living in this unstable modern world. I was very well aware of Jordan Peterson, on a much more elevated level. I really can’t say the same of Nick Fuentes, until the current bruhaha came like a tornado out of nowhere, although perhaps the conditions – like that for a tornado – were all present. Fuentes himself strikes many observers or commenters on the blogs, websites and substackers that I do follow as a deeply angry, deeply disturbing force; a presence which makes your hair stand up on the back of your neck and inspire one to vacate the area at speed. Is Fuentes just a focus and a voice for that young male anger or is he calculatingly hoping to use that anger as a weapon for himself. Is he looking for wider alliances, or just higher visibility by a seemingly sympathetic interview with Tucker Carleson? For real … or just another media psyops?
Discuss as you wish or have particular insight.