Ben Sixsmith

Alas, Chick-fil-A has fallen. The last outpost of conservative principles has surrendered to the massed ranks of the SJWs. I feel as if I am surveying the sack of Rome, and the gates have been opened to the Visigoths. I am being sarcastic, in case somebody screenshots this and posts it on Twitter with 'who's the real snowflake, lol' or 'cry more, bitch'. (Who am I kidding? Someone has done this already and stopped reading.) Of course, Chick-fil-A has caved. Conservatives might have justly pointed how ludicrous it was for the fast-food restaurant chain to have been forced out of Britain and picketed in the States because of its traditional Christian stance but what can you expect from big business?

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.

A common view is that the mainstream media loves censorship. Mainstream commentators smear people as bigots, mainstream social media platforms close their accounts and mainstream politicians applaud their efforts. Alternative tendencies like the 'Intellectual Dark Web' have emerged to oppose censorship. But is the alternative media free of its own censorious trends?One of the more memorable episodes of The Joe Rogan Experience involved the comedian cum commentator-cum-podcaster Mr Rogan sitting down with his friends, the comedian Bryan Callen and the UFC heavyweight Brendan Schaub. Schaub had just come off a loss by technical knockout and expected to discuss the bout in a collegial fashion.

The return of Mencius Moldbug is a timely one. Across Europe, after all, people have begun to share his anti-democratic sentiments. British liberals have spent years attempting to undermine the result of the 2016 referendum on Britain’s membership of the EU. American liberals have spent years looking for excuses to impeach Donald Trump and countermand the results of the 2016 Brexit referendum. Yes, it is somewhat ironic that three-and-a-half years after the retirement of Mencius Moldbug from blogging, anti-democratic sentiments tend to be heard from the left and populist sentiments tend to be heard from the right.The brief flourishing of neoreaction, otherwise known as NRx, otherwise known as the Dark Enlightenment, feels like a world away.

Here are a few fascinating facts about the death of Jeffrey Epstein, the mysterious financier, friend to the rich and powerful, prolific ephebophile and alleged organizer of a child abuse ring. He was taken off suicide watch despite apparently attempting suicide just weeks before; his guards were asleep while he was reportedly hanging himself despite his being perhaps the most high-profile convict in the United States; two cameras outside his cell allegedly malfunctioned, and his friend and alleged accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell has somehow disappeared. Perhaps there are innocent explanations for all of these curious facts, but can you sincerely blame anyone who asks the question of whether there has been a conspiracy? The Epstein case really has something for everyone.