A Tone Deaf Think Tanker

Chris Rufo knows better or does he?

Chris Rufo carved a name for himself in the right-wing ecosystem, especially through his advocacy against critical race theory and woke policies in schools and workplaces. His work on these cultural flashpoints has been influential, no doubt. He is not a subject matter expert elsewhere. Rufo’s foray into prescribing solutions for broader societal issues such as the plight of disaffected young men has been both laughably tone deaf and revealing of his Johnny-come-lately understanding of right-wing ideas.

This week, Rufo took to Twitter to mock young men expressing dissatisfaction with their reduced quality of life and lack of opportunity in America, advising them to go work at Panda Express. After all, it can be $70,000 a year in salary! Yes, the same Rufo who positions himself as a cultural warrior against the left's destruction of American values now proposes that men should shrug off their concerns about broad economic decline, unchecked immigration, and soaring inflation by, essentially, frying up orange chicken. He should call it the Panda Express Solution.

Rufo’s suggestion that disaffected young men take entry-level jobs at fast-food chains completely misses the point of their grievances. It is a message aimed at all young men so if college educated young men are frozen out of career paths by the very DEI hiring process Rufo fights against, he now offers grunt food service work as the fix. So why fight DEI Chris? It’s not that these young men are unwilling to work; it’s that the old paths of opportunity in America have been closed off. Real wages have stagnated for decades, housing costs are astronomical, and inflation makes $70,000 a lot smaller in reality. Meanwhile, elites push infinity immigration that flood the labor market, suppressing wages and further reducing the leverage of American workers. The H1B debate should have informed Rufo that it is not just tech but all economic sectors that are abusing the program, harming the career opportunities of these upset young men.

Rufo’s advice to "just get a job" at Panda Express is the kind of out-of-touch commentary you’d expect from a boomer who hasn’t had to worry about rent since the 1980s. It’s the equivalent of Marie Antoinette’s “let them eat cake,” except instead of pastries, it’s fried rice served under fluorescent lights. It’s a complete abdication of serious engagement with the structural forces that have led to a generation of men feeling demoralized and disenfranchised. Has he been to a Panda Express recently? It is staffed by immigrants. This isn’t a hustle opportunity. The labor there is a high churn workforce that is in and out at the same wages forever to cap labor costs. Why would young men enter that grind? What’s the reward? We will not even touch the social environment of a nation with women not wanting children and getting explicit hiring practices enforced by HR for jobs in the very industries men would seek.

Rufo’s comments also reveal his superficial grasp of broader right-wing critiques of modern society. While he’s done great work exposing the poison of woke ideology, his understanding of right-wing ideas beyond the culture war appears to be thin. Right-wing anons have been raising alarms about economic decline, mass immigration, the anti-male hiring and education policies and the erosion of traditional norms and mores for decades. These issues are not new; they are the foundation of many critiques of globalism, neoliberalism, and the left’s cultural hegemony.

Rufo himself could hire men for political work and build a network of competent investigators and advocates, yet he hired uhhhhh a former porn star? Maybe Rufo knows donors who could be pitched for amazing political and cultural outreach. This way the presidential campaign does not have to rely on the whims of the world’s richest man and free anons finding viral outrage facts or anecdotes, self-published books reflecting today’s problems and guiding the emerging male voter bloc or Lomez hustling all over America to fundraise to print outsider books. Rufo himself talks about using the left’s tactics and one of those tactics is building a cadre of loyal, committed ideologues.

Enough of that tangent, which makes the entire right guilty. Instead of engaging with these deeper critiques, Rufo seems content to stay on the surface, throwing out platitudes about hard work and personal responsibility while ignoring the macroeconomic issues that make it nearly impossible for many young men to succeed. His "just work at Panda Express" advice suggests he’s either unaware of these issues or, worse, deliberately ignoring them because addressing them would require upsetting the status quo. We didn’t vote for Trump for the status quo. How much of this is Rufo himself and how much is dictated by the Manhattan Institute? We do not know, but it reeks of think tanker obliviousness.

Rufo’s failure to address the broader macroeconomic issues plaguing young men is particularly galling because these problems are not just tangential to the culture war; they are deeply intertwined with it.

Rufo has been quiet about the effects of mass immigration on American workers. While he’s quick to condemn woke ideology in schools, he’s much less vocal about how an oversaturated labor market has made it nearly impossible for young men to achieve the same standard of living their fathers and grandfathers enjoyed. How does "working at Panda Express" solve the problem of depressed wages caused by an endless influx of low-skilled labor? Most of those fast food joints are staffed by newcomers who maybe speak English.

The skyrocketing cost of living is another issue that Rufo conveniently sidesteps. That $70,000 salary is like $35,000 in 2000. Young men aren’t just complaining about a lack of work opportunities; they’re grappling with the reality that even if they do work hard, they’re still priced out of homeownership, can’t afford to start families, and are buried in debt. Telling them to fry up teriyaki chicken bowls doesn’t address the Federal Reserve’s reckless monetary policy or the government’s endless spending spree.

For decades, Americans have watched their quality of life decline. Do we even build starter homes anymore? Would those neighborhoods be safe? Manufacturing jobs have been offshored, small towns have been hollowed out, and traditional institutions like the church and family have been undermined. Young men aren’t looking for meaningless platitudes about hard work; they want leaders who will fight to restore the conditions that allowed previous generations to thrive. Electing Trump was a means of flipping the game board and disrupting this process.

Rufo’s focus on the culture war isn’t wrong, but his refusal to engage with the economic and social underpinnings of these cultural issues limits his credibility. It’s as if he wants to win the battle over school curriculums while ignoring the broader war for the macroeconomic structure of the nation. Woke ideology didn’t emerge in a vacuum; it’s a symptom of a deeper societal rot caused by decades of economic and cultural mismanagement as the left was bought out by big business. Telling young men to work low wage jobs does nothing to address this rot. Plus how many others will try that same path? This simply shifts the blame onto the very people who are most affected by decline and these are his nominal allies.

Chris Rufo has been an effective advocate in the fight against wokeness, but his recent comments show the limits of his understanding of right-wing thought and the base. Instead of dismissing the legitimate concerns of young men with out-of-touch advice about fast-food jobs, Rufo should take the time to understand the structural issues driving their discontent. If he can’t, he should stick to what he knows like CRT, and leave the broader issues of immigration, inflation, and economic decline to those who actually get it. Not everything needs his input.

Rufo’s Panda Express comments aren’t just tone-deaf; they’re emblematic of a broader problem within the right. It’s an old tendency among some culture warriors to focus on surface-level issues while ignoring the structural forces at play. The young men Rufo dismisses deserve better than try harder for a crappy world. And frankly, so does the MAGA movement he claims to fight alongside. A far superior contribution to an intra-right fight would have been to tweet that mass deportations solve a lot of these issues, so get it done Trump Admin.