I want to thank Claremont for the opportunity to reply to Michael Anton's review of my book Bronze Age Mindset. Since at least 2015—but in fact from before Trump ever came along—there has been a tremendous intellectual disturbance or ferment online, among both the right and the left, that has escaped the notice or surveillance of the mainstream media, the literary and pundit-political establishment, and all those who imagine themselves gatekeepers of public taste and opinion. Trump's campaign beginning in 2015 brought this countercultural phenomenon to view of the authorities, who have been struggling to understand it and contain it ever since.

What are the “crazy Pepe frog people” online all about? The terms “altright” and “altleft” have been designed as catch-all categories to describe what is going on, but they're misleading. There have been a few inadequate attempts to understand this phenomenon before Anton's article: for example Angela Nagle's book Kill All Normies, or a few articles by lesser-known journalists. But Anton's review of my book is the first big attempt, as far as I'm aware, to really try to understand what's going on from a sympathetic point of view; which is to say, non-polemically and without the ulterior intention of getting us censored or of bringing the weight of the national security establishment on our backs. I think Anton, whatever our disagreements—and they seem to be considerable—must be praised for realizing that the phenomenon in question isn't going away and cannot simply be suppressed, but must be understood.