The sole publication that speaks for being liberal is New York Magazine, which is the only one that supports that statement more strongly than the correct itself.
Gracing the publication’s cover this week is a picture of warm, fresh, Trumpy right-wingers sipping difficult seltzers and taking photographs at a MAGA opening celebration. The story, written by Brock Colyar, dubs the new “young right” the” Cruel Kids ‘ Table”, but describes — and portraits — them like an exclusive fraternity whose most outspoken critics are those who quietly covet an request.
What Colyar interprets as” violent” is partially the poorly calculated criticism of drunken partygoers and half the invincible, uncancellable approach of rebel youth whose message to the gravelly associate principals of the world is” I don’t really treatment, Margaret”
The most obvious reason for the west’s new appeal to young people is that it’s usually been” awesome” to be postmodern, and now that the left has captured the establishments, to be a traditional is to be a dissident. It’s an act of visual revolution to host black-tie events with hot young people wearing tuxes and evening gowns, MAGA hats extra, when the dominant ideal of the left is a pro-obesity advocate in rainbows tights with a hair and fake boobs.
If clean-cut jawlines and haircuts are Pete Hegseth-coded now, bring it on. But why does this cover story by a left-wing journalist do a better job of conveying a appealing “right-wing” aesthetic than the right’s own raw milkmaids and meme lords?
There are a lot of things that pass for a” conservative” aesthetic, whatever that means. A retro or classical” RETVRN” that launched a thousand tradwife Instagram accounts, the futuristic aesthetic of the tech and crypto bros, neofascist memery, and the folksy MAGA world of Bass Pro and Hulk Hogan fall under the purview of Aaron Renn, according to Renn. If you concur with that contention, the infamous calendar, which is full of glossy, semi-pornographic images of “ultra right” babes in the kitchen wearing nothing but MAGA hats and aprons — an aesthetic that has been unfavorably compared to the New York Magazine cover photo — is an unholy union of the first and fourth.
The New York Magazine imagery doesn’t fit neatly into any of those categories. What do you do if you’re throwing a crypto ball inside a chic building with red MAGA hats and glamorous outfits?
Renn adds that the mainstream aesthetic is coded because” the conservative leadership class frequently leads the same lifestyle as the mainstream one, which is the” things white people like” or “air space” aesthetic.”
This, he says,” creates a powerful aesthetic barrier to the right achieving cultural power in America”. City kids used to be left-coded when taking selfies at glittering cocktail parties and drinking booze. Colyar’s cover story makes it known that that aesthetic barrier is lowering. That’s why his cover photo is an instant instrument of cultural power for the right, and a more effective one than many explicitly “right-wing” aesthetics.
You can tell that Colyar, a representative of the urban left who views itself as the cultural and artistic elite, is amazed at how awe inspiring these new ambassadors of the right are in both a cultural and physical sense. That’s why, despite his attempts to paint the young right as mean and overly white, he can’t help depicting them positively. He might be offended by the “model type in a fur coat with a vaguely European accent” because she is married to an “alt-right activist,” but he is also impressed by her because she is playing their part in their own game.
The “modern elites” of the left, after all, “aren’t cool. They aren’t envied, they’re dweebs”, as political science professor Benjamin Mabry puts it. The former graduate of gender studies and Hillary Clintons who wear pantsuit represent what he refers to as a “managerial” understanding of aesthetics, where the upper 20 % of those with technical or academic expertise are considered to be experts. However, because managerial credentials can’t be replaced by genuine beauty or brilliance, those self-professed elites frequently cannibalize the aesthetics they inherited. DEI administrators aren’t creating beauty and neither is Dr. Fauci.
But a right-wing influencer class isn’t a sufficient replacement for that managerial bureaucracy, no matter how glamorous. According to Armstrong, we must” not accept the sharp distinction between the aesthetics of the top and the rest.”
According to his definition, aesthetics are” the exterior manifestation of excellence in culture and identity,” the determinants of a man’s ability to see himself as distinct from others and participate in a social context of his own kind. Whether the aesthetic is French or classical, goth or WASPy, he describes them as a declaration of loyalty to” a community and its principles” or as a declaration of loyalty to it.
The Western canon serves as a attestation that aesthetic beauty and excellence are the product of a belief system that accepts those things for their existence and inherent godliness. The right has a huge philosophical advantage in the aesthetic war, even if it has serious infrastructural disadvantages, despite being generally proud of its roots in Christendom. However, it takes more than LARPing as 1950s housewives or Roman statesmen to achieve cultural excellence.
” Aesthetics in continuity with the past do not play dress-up, but see what was best and incorporate it in a modern way, distinct to each community’s unique history and past”, Mabry says. They have a cultural identity that is why the culturally homeless modern West is so bad at them, as well as conservative calendar makers who are also bad at them. The best way to create good aesthetics is to be loyal and committed to something truly good and excellent if aesthetics are a declaration of loyalty.
That’s not to say the young “influencers” partying over inauguration weekend are the aesthetic future of the right. However, Colyar’s portrayal of them is compelling because it accurately captures a cultural identity: “everyone in this set kept referring to themselves as “normal.”
No matter how cliché some of its attendees might be online, the party was real, and the attendees were far more “normal”-looking than airbrushed calendar cam girls.
Just as good parties produce good aesthetics, so do good beliefs and good communities. For now, it doesn’t take much to win the aesthetic war against DEI consultants and cross-dressing dudes. However, it will have to approach that role more as a responsibility and less as a meme if the right wants to keep cultural and artistic relevance. To really create good aesthetics, you have to believe in what they represent.
Elle Purnell is the elections editor at The Federalist. Her work has been featured by Fox Business, RealClearPolitics, the Tampa Bay Times, and the Independent Women’s Forum. She was given her B. A. in government from Patrick Henry College and a journalism minor. Follow her on Twitter @_ellepurnell.
