I think this attitude is, at bottom, an expression of frustration. Some people aren’t in a position to express this frustration in public, so it builds and curdles. This is especially true if you live in an echo chamber. It’s enormously satisfying to “dismantle the enthusiasm” of leftists. I’m just not sure if it does much good, aside from helping one maintain sanity––even though Haydn works even better for that purpose.
Though Bower’s reputation for amusingly tearing apart everyone and everything in his path is well known, his own passions remain a mystery. When pressed, no one who is acquainted with the scintillating killjoy could attribute anything even remotely resembling an authentic personality to him.
“Now that you mention it, I don’t think I’ve ever heard him say that he liked or enjoyed something,” said market research associate Kyle Sullivan, a former roommate of Bower. “Other than that he makes some pretty trenchant points about how annoying and pointless market research is, I guess I actually don’t know a whole lot about him.”
And this is another problem. People on the alternative right are by and large intelligent, and agree on many facts, even a few principles, but beyond that, what do they share? What non-political, impersonal interests do you associate with the alternative right/race realism? Are there any social groups in your area? A group united by negativity will sooner or later turn that negativity on one another––probably sooner.
Saying “we have the truth on our side” is deceptive, really it would be better if we were promoting some obvious absurdity, belief in which was necessary for group cohesion. The need to belong is stronger in almost everyone than the need to know the truth. Almost everyone needs to feel like they’re part of a group, even a group of two outcasts. Race realism, by itself, doesn’t offer much of a replacement for that feeling of belonging many leftists get from their group. Think about it. What would a truthful “sales pitch” look like? Something like this?:
You, too, can keep your beliefs secret from all but your closest loved ones, who will misunderstand you and try to sway you from “the dark side”! Argue with idiots––or stew in your silence! Get madder than Rorschach on ketamine! It’s like wearing They Live glasses that never come off!
It doesn’t have to be this way. There’s nothing inherently horrible about the truth. Think of what Joe Gillis told Norma Desmond: “There’s nothing tragic about being fifty. Not unless you’re trying to be twenty-five!” Right now, we can point out––in so many words––that the current zeitgeist is encouraging the Norma Desmonds of the world to try to be twenty-five forever––an impossible and destructive goal. Isn’t Alan Bower-esque commentary somewhat destructive as well?
