Nick Fuentes

Nick Fuentes, the controversial far-right firebrand, was suspended from Twitter on Friday. Unsurprisingly, Media Matters chew toy Al Kaplan broke the news of the suspension. A Twitter spokesman, Trenton Kennedy, told the New York Times that Fuentes 'was permanently suspended for repeated violations of the Twitter Rules.’ Cockburn is annoyed by the terminology; suspension inherently means temporary. Twitter should classify it as a permanent ban. Put down the DMT and stop playing with the clockwork elves, Jack. Finish up grammar school. The spokesperson would not detail which specific rules he violated: 'This is all I can share right now — thanks for understanding.’ No problem buddy, take your time.

A decade is an eternity in politics, but some things don’t change. In 2010, the smart people were either thrilled or alarmed by the prospect of an ‘emerging Democratic majority’, created by high immigration, de-industrialization and college education. Ten years on, influential magazines are still warning Republicans to play nice with a newly diverse electorate or go the way of the Whigs. Meanwhile, the candidates for the Democratic presidential nomination are all promising to ‘revive the Obama coalition’ as if the popular revolt of 2016 never happened. The Obama presidency, with its low-growth recovery and healthcare fiasco, marked the overreach and collapse of big-state liberalism.

Aren’t the groypers great? Isn’t it so envelope-pushingly exciting of their ‘leader’ Nick Fuentes to say that Jim Crow was ‘better for them…better for us’, so free-speechingly naughty to say that only ‘200,000 or 3,000 Jews’ were murdered in the Holocaust, so vigorously uncucked to say that immigration into the United States, rather than being uncontrolled because the people who run the country can barely control their own bowels, is being driven by a conspiracy to ‘replace’ white Christians?

The left, Charlie Kirk is fond of saying, hates the idea that there are other ideas. This is the kind of phrase that is extremely fashionable on the mainstream pro-Trump right. Comedian and political commentator Steven Crowder hosts debates under the slogan ‘change my mind’. Ben Shapiro, who is less pro-Trump, drones ‘facts don't care about your feelings’. We are reasonable and open-minded, such men have signaled, while our opponents are dogmatic and intolerant.Sometimes, though, your greatest weapon can be your greatest weakness. More nationalistic and reactionary right-wingers have grasped their chance to insert themselves into mainstream discourse: beating commentators like Kirk, Crowder and Shapiro at their own game.