National Review has published yet another article on “the moral and intellectual rot at the heart of the Alt-Right”:

“Last week, Breitbart writers Allum Bokhari and Milo Yiannopoulos took it upon themselves to pen an apologia for the “Alternative Right,” or Alt-Right — the grab bag of ostensibly right-wing anti-liberal ideologies whose disciples, of late, are thrilling to the rise of Donald Trump. The Alt-Right has evangelized over the last several months primarily via a racist and anti-Semitic online presence. But for Bokhari and Yiannopoulos, the Alt-Right consists of fun-loving provocateurs, valiant defenders of Western civilization, daring intellectuals — and a handful of neo-Nazis keen on a Final Solution 2.0, but there are only a few of them, and nobody likes them anyways. In other words, anyone familiar with Yiannopoulos’s theatrics, or Breitbart’s self-appointment as Donald Trump’s Pravda, will not be surprised to learn that the article is a 5,000-word whitewash. But it is valuable, in this way: It exhibits, albeit inadvertently, the moral and intellectual rot at the heart of the Alt-Right. … But this is not about the Gang of Eight bill. Most on the Alt-Right do not only reject the “conservative Establishment” or some other contemporary bogeyman; they also reject the ideals of classical liberalism as such. …”

Read it for yourself.

I was expecting a more substantial complaint about our moral and intellectual rot than another version of “I can’t even.”

A few brief points:

1.) For a mainstream conservative, “morality” is synonymous with “respectability” and established norms. In our society, the Left is engaged in a project of perpetual social revolution and sets the ground rules of moral discourse through their control of the media and universities. The role of “conservatives” in this system is to browbeat the Right into conforming to the status quo, not to challenge it.

2.) The moral compass of the mainstream “conservative” is set by the Left give or take a few decades. Yesterday’s fashionable leftist radicalism invariably becomes today’s principled conservatism. Trump, for example, is objectionable because of his bigotry, racism, sexism, xenophobia, anti-Semitism, nativism, misogyny, etc.

3.) Politico is reporting that the GOP is gearing up for a platform fight over gay marriage – jettisoning the traditional definition of marriage a year after a Supreme Court decision illustrates how this neverending process happens in real time.

4.) In spite of what they say, mainstream “conservatives” don’t really have any moral principles. Instead, they are oriented towards what is fashionable and respectable, not what is right or true. This is why the Left is able to yank their chain so easily. If the Left makes enough noise about it, they will usually fold and ostracize one of their own for violating some politically correct taboo. Traditional moral virtues like loyalty are meaningless to them.

5.) Finally, the Alt-Right isn’t guided by what is fashionable or respectable, which is why neither the Left or the mainstream “conservatives” can control it. There isn’t any money to be made in the Alt-Right which isn’t a donor-funded scam like mainstream “conservatism.”

Personally, I wouldn’t be doing this if I didn’t believe it. I don’t have any incentive to do it except to tell the truth as I see it.