“The New Right is of the fringe, and the fringe is where both innovation and insanity lay.” – Michael Malice, The New Right.
When a writer asked to interview me for a book, I almost declined. I was burned out of talking to media people and not interested in explaining the same events over and over again.
But a mutual friend vouched for Michael Malice, and after being impressed with his Joe Rogan interview, I sat down for the interview.
https://youtu.be/lTSsAXNKl7I
Malice’s intellectual curiosity was evident immediately. Most writer or “journalists” want to argue during interviews. It gets boring. “OK, since you brought up x, you’re not going to bring up y.”
Malice was genuinely interested in my ideas, which as my recent interview on the Rubin Report show, are often “left wing.” Example – I believe CEO pay should be capped at a ratio of 100-to-1 of median employee wage.
Rather than attack or defend anyone, Malice showcases the points of views of people ranging from controversial to persona non grata. (Gavin McInnes is not only banned from Facebook, it’s also illegal for you to say you like him on the platform.)
Malice explains positions held by the populists and others, and criticizes those views where appropriate. As one example:
Activist Mike Cernovich’s movie is titled Silenced: The War on Free Speech…. The universal claim and concern in the New Right is that attacks on our free speech are unprecedented and fiercer than ever.
They are wrong.
Virtually all the Founding Fathers, including George Washington himself, were still alive when the Fifth Congress passed the Sedition Act, signed into law by John Adams. The act made it a federal crime to criticize the government or the president, leading to the arrest and imprisonment of several journalists.
While Malice has his history correct, one central theme of Silence was, We are doing it to ourselves.
Silenced was prophetic, and showed that the real threat to free speech wasn’t the government. It was all of us, as I describe in introducing Silenced:
Things are different than they used to be. We all know the feeling of dread when posting or talking about something controversial, and this dread has silenced us. It’s not censorship. The government isn’t doing it. We are. To ourselves. Across business, education, politics, and entertainment.
One can’t blame Malice for not having examined my entire body of work, because honestly how is that even possible?
Malice’s point about free speech is well-taken, though, as people today like people of all times believe our era is unprecedented. When really we aren’t special.
Malice also takes a look at Gorilla Mindset, and unlike most in the media, gets it:
In 2015 Cernovich self-published Gorilla Mindset…. Yet despite his swagger and the book’s title, his writing is far more new age than neo-reactionary. Many of the ideas have been staples of women’s magazines for years, including the benefits of meditation and “being present.”
Cernovich has cleverly repackaged such concepts in a manner friendly for guys, and in the process has given men permission to engage in these activities without feeling stigmatized. It’s akin to when Coca-Cola was invented Coke Zero, which was conceived as a male alternative for those too embarrassed by the perceived effeminacy of ordering a Diet Coke.
I’ve been on Malice’s show Your Welcome once or twice and am fond fo him, so you might consider this review to be PR, and that’s okay with me.
Those who know better understand that I’m a tough reviewer when it comes to books, and sometimes needlessly downgrade an excellent book as a way of antagonizing authors.
If you want to truly understand what is happening in America today, read The New Right.
As Malice observes, the new right has a largely male audience, and he asked me to explain why:
“Men are told today they’re living in a man’s world,” Cernovich told me, “and they’re looking around and thinking, Well, not for me. With men there isn’t any real help with alienation.”
Much of contemporary feminism is based on things like the relative number of male CEOs.
“It’s called the apex fallacy,” he said. “Too many men at the top. OK, what about the men at the bottom? Male suicide is four times the rate of female suicide. Look at homelessness, drug addition, and suicide rates. Men are often the biggest winners and the biggest losers.
You can get the New Right in ebook, paperback, and Audio.
P.S. While you’re there, in anticipation of my next book, I’ve discounted Gorilla Mindset by 90% for the ebook, 50% for the paperback, and the audiobook is here.
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