Engaging With the Culture Must Be the Future of Conservative Media

Chronicles ^ | June 2025 | Mark Judge

[Chickensoup]

I subscribe to Chronicles.

However I also subscribe to City journal and The Spectator.

For just the reason the author talks about.

Pity one cannot find another conservative to discuss all the interesting things their
Writers talk about.

No one.

[CondoleezzaProtege]

As a Christian with both Catholic and Protestant inclinations, I blame a lot of this on the anti-intellectual, anti-culture current that has long defined American Evangelicalism.

Strip mall churches and things. 😑

[norwaypinesavage]

"A recent Sunday edition of the Times offered stories about a new film honoring Nat King Cole, a review of a documentary about the lives of ballerinas, a fantastic profile of the British band Pulp, and an interview with Mia Threapleton, an actress in the new Wes Anderson movie The Phoenician Scheme. Then there’s the book review section, which included books about the history of spies in American high society, how sex has interacted with Christianity, and a memoir by 1980s restauranteur Keith McNally."

The guy really needs to get a life. Anyone who thinks this drivel is worth spending time on is missing out on reality.

[irishjuggler]

God bless Mark Judge... a good man whose good name was dragged through the mud in the left’s wild-eyed, reckless and utterly diabolical attempt to take down Brett Kavanaugh and save Roe v. Wade.

[MotorCityBuck]

“As a Christian with both Catholic and Protestant inclinations, I blame a lot of this on the anti-intellectual, anti-culture current that has long defined American Evangelicalism.”
Agreed. Finally. ;)

[GSWarrior]

…….

[arthurus]

And I once read Playboy for the philosophical articles.

[Inyo-Mono]

"a review of a documentary about the lives of ballerinas"

The guy really needs to get a life. Anyone who thinks this drivel is worth spending time on is missing out on reality.

I agree, I'd rather blow my brains out than read about a documentary on the lives of ballerinas, and I love to read. Eons ago, I used to read the Los Angeles Times book reviews every Sunday.

[DoodleBob]

This is a great article.

Back in the 80s, there was a meaningfully large portion of Intellectuals that were Republicans. While they generally Country Club Republicans, they brought a vital rigor to the underpinnings of free markets, free minds, and a free society.

This group TENDED to be - as we denizens would call them - Quiche Eaters. They liked going to museums over the shooting ranges, liked the Opera over mosh pits, and has more classics than Mad magazines in their library. There was a slight animosity between the Quiche Eaters and Denizens. But, in general, we overlooked these differences since America was more important.

Over the past decade, a strong anti-intellectual sentiment has spread across MAGA land. To be fair, it’s well-earned: professors are anti-American, as are journalists, k-12 educators, globalists, and many medical/Fauci-types.

At the same time, many of us Denizens grew up. We have Bach and the Dead Kennedys in our music collection, have Atlas Shrugged and As I Lay Dying next to Calvin and Hobbes, and concealed carry when going to the museum. We still think Real Men Don’t Eat Quiche. But we will go to brunch.

Enter the MAGA anti-intellectuals. Again, their skepticism or hostility to anyone on FR who reads the Sunday Times, knows about Wagnerian opera beyond Looney Tunes, or lives in a blue state or works in Manhattan, LA, or Chicago is understandable. And yea, I find the ballet to be pure Quiche-eating fare. However, that doesn’t make anti-intellectuals superior or better.

I get it. The arts tend to be the domain of the left. As such, using the transitive property of politics, if the left is useless, and the left likes the arts, then the arts are useless.

Not only is this wrong, but given that Our Side tends to be empirically driven and, dare I say, smarter and more insightful than statists, our assessment and critique and championing of the arts would wrestle away this dimension of culture. Beethoven’s 9th IS a masterpiece because, contrary to leftist claptrap about equality, some people are just better than others, and Beethoven was da bomb. Eddie Murphy a superior comedic actor vs Jim Carrey not because he’s black, but because his movies and comedy hit upon fundamental elements of greatness and differences without being preachy. Finally, as always, Springsteen sucks. And so on.

If there is any indication that I’m close to right, one only needs to review any Sunkenciv article. You CAN be MAGA and a cultural intellectual without having to undergo reassignment surgery with a congratulatory Quiche served afterwards.

I suspect that if there WAS a “conservative” culture magazine, it would crush the Sunday Times. Indeed, if there was a Culture Ping List, it’d take off.

YMMV.

[BenLurkin]

Conservative media is the culture, or at least what is left of it.

[alternatives?]

I agree. Nat King Cole, Pulp, and Mia T, who cares? In 30 years nobody will know, or care, who they are.

In addition it is written in a newspaper that routinely lies. What purpose is achieved by reading writers who lie?

[Chickensoup]

Wouldn’t you say that the Spectator fills that bill?

[MinorityRepublican]

One of the major reasons Trump won in 2024 was due to TikTok and X.

[x]

It’s about 60 years since Nat King Cole died and people still remember him and care. In another 30 years I expect most of us will be gone, but what will people then remember or care about? Anything more worthwhile? I doubt it.

Didn’t Mark Judge say last week or so that he was leaving journalism to pursue something else? The dude is taking his time.

[Lurker]

“Politics is downstream of culture.” Andrew Breitbart.

L

[Secret Agent Man]

We do engage. It might seem we don’t because most of the media doesn’t cover it, or the little it does cover, is heavily biased.

But just living our lives, we do. The things we decide to do, we do. The things we decide not to do, we do.

[Angelino97]

I blame a lot of this on the anti-intellectual, anti-culture current that has long defined American Evangelicalism.

American Evangelicalism has tried to create its own counter-culture. They gave us Christian heavy metal and Christian rap. And Hallmark style Christian movies.

[Angelino97]

This group TENDED to be - as we denizens would call them - Quiche Eaters. They liked going to museums over the shooting ranges, liked the Opera over mosh pits, and has more classics than Mad magazines in their library

You described William F. Buckley.

[CondoleezzaProtege]

Yeah and the sub culture is nothing to write home…or the NY Times about.