There’s a lot of creative energy splitting away from the left due to its hard lean into wokeness, but I don’t see the right taking advantage of this. This is the case for two reasons: 1) The rightwing intelligentsia is constrained by a desire for respectability at all costs. /1

2) Its complete lack of interest in the creative fields, which often manifests as a disdain for artists. I say this as an exile from the creative writing world who’s written for “right wing” outlets but has no interest in wearing bow-ties and climbing up the masthead. /2

There are many like me, artistic mercenaries, if you will, abandoned by the left and looking, not for a political home, per say, but a creative home. Some will go post-left, whatever that is, or just vanish altogether, but the talent is out there and ripe for the picking. /3

The problem, of course, is that the institutional right, so staid for so long, is petrified of anything transgressive. The right finds artists “problematic,” just not in the same way the left does. They’ll play footsie with Houellebecq, but that’s it. /4

So much talk about a realignment lately, but it’s all political and never cultural. Why isn’t there a rightwing quarterly publishing short fiction and film reviews, etc., by hip writers—of all political persuasions—instead of the usual geriatrics jerking it to Buckley? /5

The talent is everywhere and easy to find, but to put it simply, the nerds who shuddered at the word “jerking,” must create a little space for the artists. A few, like the fellows at the @theammind, seem to get this, but that's it. /6

And if anyone out there is interested in trying to remedy this, even as a one time experiment, reach out.