Replies

1. Derbyshire grew up in a blue collar household.

2. What is wrong with "elitism." To be an elitist is to believe in high standards, and the fact that those with talent and intelligence shoulder the burden for all of us and are the ones who ultimately advance civilization.

I think too many folks (Laura Ingraham being the most noteworthy example) confuse elitism with snobbery. They are two separate concepts.

The migration of populist retards to the Right has ruined the conservative movement, IMHO.

1. Derbyshire grew up in a blue collar household.

That describes almost every social climber ever born.

Pretty much every other 20 something in NYC is a refugee from a blue collar or lower-middle white collar home in a small town - and they usually delight in putting down the town they came from, the religion they were raised in, the silly devotion to local sports in their hometown, the lack of culture in their hometown, etc.

There is a difference between maintaining a standard of excellence and a standard of detached cynicism - or, as you put it, between elitism and snobbery. Derbyshire is a snob.

The migration of populist retards to the Right has ruined the conservative movement, IMHO.

I definitely agree with that sentiment.

Here is the problem: mindless populism on the one hand is counterbalanced by obnoxious obscurantism on the other hand - i.e. the "palaeoconservative" faction.

And the two factions often mutually support each other in a noxious alliance - like the Ron Paul campaign.

Especially in the matter of religion: for the populist, religion is a purely emotional phenomenon - which is precisely the way the wry snob views it: namely as an emotional response which is sometimes useful among the lower sort but which he is thankfully free from.

There is a type of "conservative" who views faith and patriotism as useful items which can be manipulated for political ends. And then there is the populist "conservative" who views emotionalism as "faith" and ethnonationalism as "patriotism."