Kevin D. Williamson Is Going to The Dispatch

Kevin D. Williamson giving a lecture at AEI,
"Congestive Heart Failure: Theory and Application"

Just a rumor which I cannot confirm so take it with a grain of salt. Update: I have a fairly solid confirmation that Williamson is out at NR and in at The Cuckshed.

Now I hear more, but I also cannot confirm that part.

I am merely reporting upon the existence of the rumor. I make no claims about the factuality of the rumor. And I'm not mentioning the second part of the rumor at all. Update: This part of the rumor was denied. We'll see, we'll see.

In the meantime, here's something completely, totally unrelated about The Dispatch.

A month ago, The Dispatch attempted to #cancel National Review writer Nate Hochman. Hochman had, I guess, become a Target for the neoliberals/neocons at The Dispatch, because he seemed to be more populism-curious than most National Review writers.

So they #Cancelled him. They specifically cancelled him for, get this, disputing and disagreeing with Nick Fuentes, who is frequently accused of trafficking in anti-semitic and/or racist tropes.

Now if you're wondering, "Why would you cancel someone for disagreeing with Nick Fuentes?," it's because Hochman didn't disagree with him in the way the progressives-pretending-to-be-Republicans would prefer, which is through #Deplatforming and #PerformativeMoralOutrage. Instead, Hochman just disagreed with him and rejected his claims.

And for that, The Dispatch -- run by "conservatives" Steve Hayes and Jonah Goldberg, and Chief Assistant Swabby David French -- literally went running to his employer to #Cancel him.

And did get him #Cancelled, from one job, at least.

Another fixture in this world is a friend of Sharma's and perhaps the most prominent public face of the young new right--the left-wing media's go-to voice for insight into this crowd, Nate Hochman. (Hochman interned for The Dispatch in 2020.) Hochman describes the Cicero Society as "particularly decadent" and an "over-the-top, silver-spoon" club. He can be found at the meetings fairly regularly, and says he was planning on going to the spring cocktail party until a conflict arose.

Hochman is now a Claremont Institute fellow and an Intercollegiate Studies Institute fellow, the latter of which got him a yearlong spot at National Review starting last August. Sharma and Hochman know each other from general D.C. social life, and also occasionally intersect in the professional sphere, such as when they both appeared in a Twitter Spaces chat room--an audio-only space on Twitter where conversations are not saved once they end--with prominent Holocaust denier and white nationalist Nick Fuentes in December 2021. The conversation was ostensibly to discuss whether Fuentes and his ilk have a place in the new right.

The Dispatch obtained an audio recording of the Twitter Spaces conversation from an individual who listened in. Hochman argued that Fuentes shouldn't be a part of the conservative movement, quarreling with Fuentes about his tactics and understanding of racial politics in America. But he praised what Fuentes had accomplished throughout the conversation.

"You've gotten a lot of kids based, and we respect that for sure," Hochman told Fuentes. (Urban Dictionary defines "based" as: "A word used when you agree with something; or when you want to recognize someone for being themselves, i.e. courageous and unique or not caring what others think. Especially common in online political slang.")

"I think Nick's probably a better influence than Ben Shapiro on young men who might otherwise be conservatives," he said at one point. "The fact that kids are listening to you, there are good things and bad things about it. But the fact that you have said super edgy things means that there's a pretty strong ceiling to what you can accomplish in politics."

Most of Hochman's criticisms of Fuentes were less about substance and more about style, as Hochman stated repeatedly that while he has respect for Fuentes, he thinks his white identity politics isn't a winning strategy in America right now.

"If you are going to insist on a political coalition that is strictly organized around white identity at the exclusion of other people that might be allies in the electoral vote, you are going to lose because that kind of politics is no longer viable in America. Maybe it would be ideal if it were, but if you are running a political campaign, a political strategy around activating white identity as an organizing principle of your politics you are going to lose. I respect some of what you're doing, but this, fundamentally, is why I was saying earlier, I don't think you're a serious political operator because the kind of politics that you are advocating is disconnected from the reality of what America is in 2021. It's just not gonna work."

Hochman was trying to lead Fuentes away from race essentialism in a way that would not put him immediately on the defensive and thereby cause him to reject all arguments.

He was also doing what NeverTrumpers should immediately recognize as Solid Political Craftsmanship -- just telling the person you wish to manipulate that while maybe there might be something to what they're saying, we can't do what they're suggesting now. It's just not practical.

NeverTrumpers and liberal Republicans -- neocons/neoliberals -- have long told actual conservatives that maybe they agree with us on strengthening the border, "but we just can't do that right now, the politics are against us, we just have to pass a nice corporate tax cut this year. Maybe in 2060 we'll get around to border security."

So Hochman was trying to convince Fuentes in a way that actually had a chance of succeeding, instead of simply doing what Jonah Goldberg demanded, which is to start blubbering, "Well I never!" and #Deplatform him.

And for that, the writer of this piece, Alec Dent -- with the approval of Hayes and Goldberg, I'll warrant -- went toddling off to Hochman's employer, the Robert Novak Fellowship Program, showed them the "receipts" of Hochman's non-huffy-responses to Fuentes, and got him terminated:

Hochman was also, until very recently, a fellow in the Robert Novak Fellowship Program, which sponsors young journalists as they work on a yearlong project. When reached for comment, the Robert Novak Fellowship Program said it had rescinded his fellowship on Thursday after the organization became aware of his comments in this Twitter Spaces discussion.

By the way, this entire article is written in a cowardly way: It's plainly about this #cancellation attempt on Nate Hochman, a writer at Goldberg's former magazine. But it hides that, and pretends it's about this very minor, not-worth-writing about monthly get-together by young people on the "New Right." The big revelation? Although they're all populists who want to re-orient politics to the working classes, and pro-religion culture warriors, they come from wealthy, privileged backgrounds and engage in the vices of the worldly.

Shocking stuff, I know. Who could know that the sort of people who could afford to come to DC and kick around doing magazine-type stuff instead of finding work that paid better and more regularly would be backed by familial wealth?

But, as I said, the article is written in a cowardly way to hide the fact that it is in fact just a pure #Cancellation piece; it is dressed up with this nonsense about a monthly bar-night for populist-minded members of the New Right because they aren't brave enough just to headline their piece, We're Joining Our Friends on the Left in Cancelling Our Enemies on the Right.

I mention this because Kevin D. Williamson poses as a defender of free speech -- at least as long as the free speech being defended is uttered by someone on the left.

So, surely the "Pro Free Speech" Kevin D. Williamson would not leave National Review, which is, for once, standing up for free speech by not firing Hochman, to go work for the Democrat-funded shill site that is attempting to get him fired?

Right?

Right?

Kevin D. Williamson certainly wouldn't pose as a Defender of Free Speech, making a big show of defending the free speech of lefties, while supporting the deplatforming and firing of right-leaning people, right?

I mean, that certainly doesn't sound like the Kevin D. Williamson I know.

I have indirectly reached out for comment from someone from National Review for comment, on background, and have not received any response at the time of publication, as they say.

So, without any response from National Review, this is just rumor.

We'll know in a week or two if the first part of this post, about him leaving National Review to join The Dispatch, is true.

parody by Yudhishthira's Dice

posted by Ace at 05:03 PM

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