There has been a lot of downtime for the past 24 hours…sorry for inconvenience
It’s evident RF believes Nick land is inimical to NRx, probably as part of the long-standing schism between techno-commercialism and traditionalism (or in broader philosophical terms, materialism vs. idealism), as I have discussed in the past here.
But RF’s anger possibly stems from a misunderstanding of what NRx (and its Social Mater and Hestia subsidiaries) is and isn’t.
Both fascists and communists had very clear organisations through which intellectual developments were veted, checked against theory and kept within a clear party line. They thus had organisation and were able to develop coherent (if crazy due to inhereted liberal theory) theory. Neoreaction was conceived as a laissez faire crab bucket where everything and everyone could throw in their own opinions and spontaneous order was
RH wants NRx to be a political movement – something with a ‘common cause’ that everyone rallies behind, with a formal top-down power structure and delineated set of instructions that everyone adheres to. NRx was never conceived to be a ’cause’, a political movement, or a political party but rather as a ‘think tank’ of sorts whereby contributors form a constellation united by ‘shared beliefs’. Fascism and communism are not political parties but rather are ideologies. The Frankfurt School is an example of decentralized communism. Each node represents different perspective, under the constellation of NRx. Spandrel’s perspective is different than Jim’s but are both reactionary writers.
As a think tank, the goal is to influence/nudge policy and cultural sentiment, both by providing intellectual food for thought and through cultural subversion, not by direct political activism and politics. Good ideas can be promoted and expounded up; less-right ideas can discarded, rebutted, or ignored. If someone is really off the mark, they can be excommunicated, but that is pretty much all that can be done within reason. A libertarian think tank, for example, may publish a research report advocating lower taxes, in the hope policy makers will implement it upon seeing the merits of the report. Supply-side economics was conceived in the 70’s by the Chicago School and Neo-Classical School as an alternative to Keynesianism, and then later implemented by Reagan. Or Alan Greenspan, arguably during his long tenure the most powerful policy maker alive second only to the President, was influenced by the philosophical writings of Ayn Rand.
An example of subversion is the use of ‘memetic warfare’ on sites like 4chan, which upon being picked up by the media may have help foster a generation of ‘right wing’ voters, and may have even played a major role in getting Trump elected.
But also, part of the problem and a source of frustration may be the the election of Trump, which may have made NRx too chummy with pro-Trump, pro-democracy political activists.
I discuss this in more detail in Alt Right & NRx: End Game and Action Plans
In this respect, NRx acts a ‘think tank’, influencing policy makers without having to engage in actual politics. The ‘Frankfurt School’, which gave birth to Cultural Marxism, was successfully able to subvert American culture and politics even though hardly anyone knows what the ‘Frankfurt School’ is, but its propaganda infiltrated and permeated virtually all facets of post-WW2 American culture and society, for the worse. Optimistically, NRx could act a right-wing version of this, to counteract the forces of decay from left.