Buy Hanania’s Book

I was not going to buy Richard’s book when it was first announced. His behavior on Twitter was a little offputting. He has a blend of saying things that are edgy, and possibly taboo within the normal pundit world, and being a contrarian who feels a need to dump on his nominal allies on the right. Then Richard was doxxed and smeared in the Huffington post. I decided to pick up his book when it was released and I’m glad to have done so.

Hanania managed to write a book that discusses the problem of woke policies, their origins, and even better, legislative ways to roll back the woke menace. This is not a normal conservative work that just points and complains about the actions of the Left. Hanania put his academic training to work and created a book that is worth reading and will not just be kindling like the average Jonah Goldberg or Daily Wire talking head entry. Hanania dives into the legal framework. That is the infrastructure. Without fear of lawsuits backed up by insane interpretations of law, many private entities would behave differently. It is possible to rewind the clock.

I don’t want to spoil the book. I do want to cover the character assassination that Huffington post and antifa friendly journalist Chris Mathias engaged in. Hanania’s connection to a pseudonym was whispered about for years. It was old writing. That was edgy and connected to online publications that are considered beyond the pale, including the bogeyman Richard Spencer. Mathias wrote an article to name & shame him, but things have changed. All the entities that he reached out to for comment did not answer. Not a single soul commented. Hanania’s patrons seemed to rally around him.

This article could’ve been written months, or even years earlier, but the goal was to spoil the publication of this book. This was the big test because in the past we have seen Paula Deen have a controversy submarine, a book released that had tons of pre-orders on Amazon. We have seen CEOs removed from their companies for just repeating a word and stating that you can’t say it anymore a la Papa John. Mathias explicitly tweeted to the publisher and engaged in what borders on mafioso racketeering. The publisher could’ve pulled the plug, and they could’ve written off the cost of initial production. They did not. That is a huge win.

Hanania will likely not be in the Washington Post again. Does that matter? What matters is his patrons, who do seem to be big figures, did not abandon him. The media is the legitimacy machine, but is this another sign that that function is breaking down? If GOP politicians read and learn from Hanania’s book, yes it is decaying.

This is a bit of proof that the Thiel universe is a big enough realm to withstand attacks from the regime. Combined with the modeled outcome of the Pedro Gonzalez attacks this is a sign that the broader right has changed how they react to smears on individuals. It will be hard for the GOP and institutional right going forward to develop and use young talent that does not have exposure to fringe and dissident rate ideas or that participated in the decade long dissident scene.

That all of this happened and that this book is selling well combined with the successful release of Costin Alamariu’s dissertation shows that any energy or idea creation is coming from outside the mainstream right. Reaganism is dead, the W era neoconservative idea machine is dead, and the stakes are rising to existential levels and require new analysis and much stronger combatants and thinkers. Regardless of the outcome in next year‘s presidential election, the old ways of thinking on the right are done. Congratulations Richard, not just on the book but on the bigger statement its release made.