Explaining Richard Hanania’s sudden success

A lot people are amazed or impressed by Richard Hanania’s apparent overnight success, and with minimal promotion by the media.

Until around 2022, Twitter was dominated by the woke-left and the MAGA-right. Richard Hanania found rapid organic success starting in 2021 catering to an underserved but influential and important niche: the anti-woke middle/center. These people opposed the mask mandates and school closures and were critical of the Covid-hysteria that had gripped the left, but also opposed (or were highly critical) of Trump and especially Jan 6th. Their views are more closely aligned with neoconservatives and neoliberals.

The assumption was this niche was dead, but rather it was hibernating or suppressed, until the necessary factors aligned for it to awaken.

The awakening was in 2022. Richard Hanania, along with Noah Smith, @eyeslasho, Crémieux, Matthew Yglesias and others on the alt-left/center, starting around 2022 with Elon’s takeover of Twitter, saw rapid popularity, in large part by being promoted by wealthy ‘tech people’ of the likes of Marc Andreessen, Paul Graham, Chamath, and David O. Sacks–as well as influential intellectuals and journalists– who typically have large platforms compared to ‘normies’. These are people with large social networks and or considerable personal wealth. What they lack in numbers, they make up for in influence, wealth, and reach.

This promotion helped said content go viral despite being outnumbered and minimal self-promotion on his part. Same for various scandals such as the Harvard plagiarism scandal and the FAA DEI scandal of 2024, as part of the broader ‘peak woke’ phenomenon in 2022, were major tailwinds. The decline of the woke-left saw moderates on either side of the aisle fill the void. When Elon bought Twitter, being suspended became less of a concern, and many previously suspended far-right accounts were un-suspended under the new ownership, so the assumption was the far-right would benefit the most, but it was actually the center or the center-right that gained the most traction.

The post-2022 decline of the alt-right and the rise of the ‘norm-core right’ also contributed to or was symptomatic of the rise of the center. The dissident/alt-right had become perceived as lower status and was crowded out by the center-right/middle and the norm-core right, who are equated with higher status due to having successful careers, high SES-status and educational attainment, and being ‘in shape’. This contrasts with ‘faceless anons’, who are assumed to have none of those attributes.

This is not to say the alt-right is dead, but compared to its heyday in 2014-2021, it has been pushed to the periphery, much like the alt-center/middle was.

Anon-culture thrived from 2011 to 2021, first such as ‘hacktivist’ groups like Lolsec and the international collective called “Anonymous” in 2011, and also with the rise of Tor and the ‘dark net’ at that same time. Same for 4chan in 2015-2016, in which anons helped ‘memeify’ then 2016 candidate Donald Trump. Covid saw the widespread use of masks, which continued well after the pandemic was a threat. This culminated with Jan 6th, in which protestors wore masks and other garments to hide their identities, with varying levels of success. That changed in 2022 with Elon’s takeover of Twitter, although like above, being anonymous became seen as lower status.

So back to Richard Hanania, it also helps that his content is more or less correct or level-minded compared to the fringes. It helps to be smart. As much as the media may complain about shortened attention spans due to social media or smart phones, or about the rise of anti-intellectualism, there will always be demand or a niche for smart, well-educated people who can cut through the noise, or who have heterodox thoughts while still maintaining some respectability or credibility.

Regarding the perception that he is hated, this is more of a function of his popularity. Any any popular pundit, on either side of the aisle, has a lot of haters or gets a lot of hate. Just look at the comments of AOCs tweets. Or Cenk Uygur.

If you look at the targets the left has cancelled or attempted to cancel over the years, few can actually be considered racist. When Kanye West went on his tirade a month ago, it was mostly ignored by the media. The ADL put out a typical boilerplate notice condemning his tweets, and that was about it. By that point everyone had already long written him off as a whack job, rendering him immune to cancellation. This is also why the left hates Richard Hanania so much, not because of alleged racism on his part, but because he’s able to maintain a foot in both doors, without being closed off entirely from the mainstream.