This (not from that piece) is one of those charts where I am completely aware of the data but my mental map of how the global economy works still almost refuses to update to the new reality. Because the pace of change has been so rapid.

Mikkel Flohr, The Political Economy of Ideas: Historical Materialism and the History of Ideas
www.jhiblog.org/2025/09/15/t...

(and did you see anything good?)

They've been covering it for sure, although more confrontationally than analytically or genealogically (which makes sense--Fuentes is their direct platform competition). I think the best work on this stuff is done by researchers like @hannahgais.bsky.social, who aren't beholden to streaming algos

I don't know anything about you, in fact, I didn't know you even existed until this reply

I'm actually working on something for Boston Review on the right and their use of signification in media that will probably cover some of this!

That’s right!!

I've been working on a larger piece about the conservative right and signification, I might include this

no more posting NO MORE POSTING this should have been an essay on my substack. ok /FIN

But they aren't making more conservatives. They stopped making those kinds of guys. The kinds of guys that are emerging are far scarier than even the Ben Shapiros of the world, because they are products of a crisis of legitimacy and economic and social crisis. But that's not a political movement.

Trump is the *only* one that was able to hold together the core coalition that brought this wave of the American conservative movement to power. It feels bad to us because he is flaunting norms and acting in such a way that suggests he has no plans to leave power, and the GOP w/him, for generations

If we on the left view them as this big amorphous, scary, extrajudicial totalitarian force of evil, we miss what's happening on the ground, fractures that are emerging, weak points that can be taken advantage of, irresolvable contradictions that imperil the implementation of their vision

So wow, whoops, this turned into a gigantic essay, that's embarrassing. But I think this is important to be aware of; not just as a warning of sorts, but also to point out that there's a real opportunity here: the right is currently enmeshed in a succession crisis, and it is doing real damage