When Paul Joseph Watson, the Infowars conspiracist whose primary contribution to humanity was popularizing the term “soy boy”, declared in 2017 that “conservatism is the new counter-culture”, he was met with derision, outrage, and ridicule from folks left of center. But he wasn’t wrong. True, Donald Trump and the Republicans held power in government, thanks largely to the minoritarian quirks of the electoral college, but the political right had little sway in the culture. Every avenue of information — universities, the press, the entertainment industry, book publishing, most knowledge-producing institutions, and every major social media platform — leaned hard to the left. Despite the fact that the general public was far more moderate and politically diverse, left-wing ideas, values, and sensibilities were somehow considered mainstream, while right-wing ideas, and in some cases even centrist views, were often treated as extreme, fringe, and out of bounds. As Johan Pregmo wrote years ago in these pages, “the left won the culture war.”
That was then. Before “social justice warrior” became “woke”, and before “woke” became “DEI.” Before the cultural left peaked and the vibes shifted. Before Twitter, Meta, and TikTok pivoted to the right. Before Amazon, Disney, and a host of other major companies backed away from progressive activism. Before President Trump swept back into power — not due to the technicalities of an arcane electoral system, but while winning the popular vote. Today, conservatism — or rather, right-wing populism — isn’t the counter-culture; it’s the establishment. In 2018, Andrew Sullivan wrote that “We All Live on Campus Now.” In 2025, we all live on 4chan.
Much like its avatar Donald Trump, the new cultural status quo borrows the style of right-wing troll culture but remains without any substance. It calls itself “conservative”, but there’s no philosophical there there. There are no coherent first principles or consistently applied values. This isn’t the conservatism of Edmund Burke, or Barry Goldwater, or even Dick Cheney. It’s a conservatism of vibes. A move-fast-and-break-things conservatism. A postmodern conservatism. A conservatism of provocation, gleeful arson, and most of all, nihilism.
Its ethos, no longer confined to places like 4chan, Kiwi Farms, and other “based” shitposting communities, is that one must always be unconcerned and completely cool. If you rile up the other side to meltdown, react indignantly, or become emotional, you win. Show any emotion yourself, besides mild amusement and detached smugness, and you lose. It’s a culture in which nothing is ever a big deal because nothing is really true; in which the highest calling is milking “lolcows” and the cardinal
Over the past couple years and especially in the last six months, this culture outgrew the online far-right and went mainstream. Today, liberals, moderates, libertarians, and virtually everyone right of center casually adopt aspects of the behavior, mannerisms, memes, style, and lingo of right-wing edgelords. Social circles that were moderate or merely non-woke two years ago are now ferociously anti-woke. Writers and editors I’ve worked with — political moderates with real reputations to protect — now commonly call people “retards” or use “gay” as an insult. Trans folks are now discussed as being obviously confused or mentally ill people claiming to be something they are not. Being concerned about minority groups in general is increasingly seen as cringe. And the threshold for outrage has achieved escape velocity from Earth. Suddenly, nothing is ever a big deal.
Nothing Donald Trump or his cronies could ever say or do matters, and anyone who sees anything amiss is suffering from terminal “Trump Derangement Syndrome.” Running roughshod over constitutional checks and balances? Who cares? Threatening to invade Greenland, Panama, and Canada? He probably won’t do it, calm down. Appointing a handful of unqualified shitposters to feed government programs into a “woodchipper”? So what? Pursuing public health policy based on conspiracy theories? You’re overreacting. Elon Musk and Steve Bannon throwing textbook Sieg Heils? Lol, it was just an awkward gesture, how dumb can you be? Trump referring to himself as a “king”? Nothing to see here.
Nobody outside of the progressive left wants to be seen evincing rational emotions in reaction to anything right-of-center, however concerning, damaging, or imbecilic. We must maintain an air of maximum no-big-deal-ness at all times, lest we be thought of as libtard TDS beta cucks. Many folks appear to have absorbed these new socio-cultural cues without seeming to have consciously realized it. Just as they once curated their public behavior to suit the sensibilities or avoid the ire of the woke left, they now do the same for our new culture police on the woke right.
Naturally, as with all things that happen on the political right, these new norms are drenched in self-serving, hypocritical bullshit. While the right has exported the values of troll culture with its apparently cavalier and amoral attitude toward life, moralizing has always been integral to right-wing messaging. When it comes to the black family, the conflicts between trans and biological women, education policy, or the illiberalism of the left, this new culture can preach on their soapbox with the best of them. And don’t get them started on Christianity. They pontificate about its vastly exaggerated role in creating the modern world — an achievement they hail even while despising modernity. They dream of destroying the separation of church and state and turning America into a Christian theocracy. And they insist that only Jesus can fill the meaning-shaped hole in today’s society. It all sounds an awful lot like caring to me.
Nihilistic, cynical troll culture is miserable, depraved, and bankrupt — intellectually and morally. But being a cafeteria nihilist, where nothing matters when it comes from the political right, but the end is nigh, repent ye sinners! when it comes from the left — that’s incoherent, dishonest, and well… retarded. If that’s what you want, far be it from me to stand in the way of your Pat-Robertson-as-the-Joker cosplay. Goodness knows it’s good for business. But if, as I suspect is often the case, people find themselves adopting these new norms subconsciously, maybe it’s worth pausing to question them.
It’s okay to care — indeed, it’s the first step to doing anything worthwhile in life. It’s okay to show emotions. It’s okay to be upset. It’s okay to have principles and to be outraged at the outrageous. Don’t give into this degeneracy. Don’t succumb to (selective) nihilism. Don’t give up out of some childish concern over seeming cool in front of the new popular kids. If this pivot from one set of culture cops to another can teach us anything, it’s the virtue of thinking for ourselves and not allowing some trendy clique to dictate how we behave. For one, that clique won’t always be trendy, and obeisance to extremists and assholes never looks good in hindsight. More than that, it highlights the importance of having values beyond “I want to be liked.” If that’s all there is, there’s truly no limit to what someone might say, do, or become just to fit in. And honestly, there’s nothing cringier either.
See also: “Liberal Propaganda in the Age of Post-Truth”
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