Jonathan Kieperman (Lomez)

Well, you know, I'm seeing your face across from me on the screen, and I'm reminded of watching Blogging Heads, like, from, you know, 10, maybe even 15 years ago. So, we've come a long way since Blogging Heads.

Well, you know, I'm seeing your face across from me on the screen, and I'm reminded of watching Blogging Heads, like, from, you know, 10, maybe even 15 years ago. So, we've come a long way since Blogging Heads.

Those are the highlights. That all tracks and covers ground well enough for us to get started on this conversation. But, you know, I do want to point out that in 2020, when we first were having this dialogue and debate over the election, you also had something of a pseudonym. And, you know, I was arguing as much with Ross Douthat as I was Italics Ross.

Those are the highlights. That all tracks and covers ground well enough for us to get started on this conversation. But, you know, I do want to point out that in 2020, when we first were having this dialogue and debate over the election, you also had something of a pseudonym. And, you know, I was arguing as much with Ross Douthat as I was Italics Ross.

And Italics Ross, you had written at least one column, maybe two. in which you sort of made the case for why Trump might be a superior choice to lead the country despite, you know, the sort of the amount of chaos that we'd have to endure under his leadership.

And Italics Ross, you had written at least one column, maybe two. in which you sort of made the case for why Trump might be a superior choice to lead the country despite, you know, the sort of the amount of chaos that we'd have to endure under his leadership.

And I was trying, if I remember the whole episode correctly, to sort of get italics Ross closer to the surface of, you know, the real Ross, the underlying Ross. So we all are trafficking in certain kinds of multi identities, I guess.

And I was trying, if I remember the whole episode correctly, to sort of get italics Ross closer to the surface of, you know, the real Ross, the underlying Ross. So we all are trafficking in certain kinds of multi identities, I guess.

Yeah, it's a good question when that might have happened. There certainly was a shift. But what's probably happening here is just the same old cycle of leftist excess that we've seen periodically over the course of American history, at least going back, to Second World War and probably even before that, there's a kind of decade of sort of leftism that takes hold, creates a kind of counterculture.

Yeah, it's a good question when that might have happened. There certainly was a shift. But what's probably happening here is just the same old cycle of leftist excess that we've seen periodically over the course of American history, at least going back, to Second World War and probably even before that, there's a kind of decade of sort of leftism that takes hold, creates a kind of counterculture.

There's a period of pushback. And we saw this, like, for example, with the original neocons in the 70s. We see the cycle then play out again in the 90s with political correctness, another basically 10-year cycle. And then all we're just seeing is this same pattern emerge in the mid-2010s. I identify 2014 as this inflection point.

There's a period of pushback. And we saw this, like, for example, with the original neocons in the 70s. We see the cycle then play out again in the 90s with political correctness, another basically 10-year cycle. And then all we're just seeing is this same pattern emerge in the mid-2010s. I identify 2014 as this inflection point.

That was the year of Michael Brown and Ferguson and the kind of rise of BLM. It's also this interesting period where the Academy, at least, and I think probably this is happening within... newspapers and media is coming out of this interesting transition into the digital age and out of the recession. And there's like new incentives kind of driving the content.

That was the year of Michael Brown and Ferguson and the kind of rise of BLM. It's also this interesting period where the Academy, at least, and I think probably this is happening within... newspapers and media is coming out of this interesting transition into the digital age and out of the recession. And there's like new incentives kind of driving the content.

And what happens there is that a bunch of conservatives and especially sort of younger conservatives who are frozen out of the conservative movement are frozen out of mainstream politics, are frozen out of

And what happens there is that a bunch of conservatives and especially sort of younger conservatives who are frozen out of the conservative movement are frozen out of mainstream politics, are frozen out of

You know, the kinds of professions where they might have a platform to express new ideas that might regenerate conservatism, go online and go underground and start developing a unique and sort of native style of discourse all our own.

You know, the kinds of professions where they might have a platform to express new ideas that might regenerate conservatism, go online and go underground and start developing a unique and sort of native style of discourse all our own.

And as that cycle of progressivism just naturally exhausts itself, which it always does, and it takes new form each time, but it kind of always follows the same plot. What we're seeing now is the emergence of this conservative ideology. You know, some people counter elite or counter cultural force simply emerging in place of where the progressives have vacated.

And as that cycle of progressivism just naturally exhausts itself, which it always does, and it takes new form each time, but it kind of always follows the same plot. What we're seeing now is the emergence of this conservative ideology. You know, some people counter elite or counter cultural force simply emerging in place of where the progressives have vacated.