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PaperclipPerfector  2yr ago (text post)   31110 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of October 2, 2023

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The Origins of Woke has not become a best seller. As of this writing, the top non-fiction book on both the Publishers Weekly and NYT best sellers lists is The Democrat Party Hates America by Mark R. Levin. While I haven't read Levin's book, I'm sure it's as disposable as any other political tract by a Fox News host, while The Origins of Woke is legitimately the most important conservative book of the last 20 years.

Argument: It's not selling well because of the Huffington Post article that exposed his old blog posts to the masses. Counterargument: Conservatives are the target market, and they tend not to "cancel" people over things like this.

Argument: It's not selling more copies because the name is cringe. Counterargument: Donald J. Trump Jr's book "Triggered" became a best seller.

Argument: It's not selling more copies because Hanania isn't a celebrity. Counterargument: Andy Ngo doesn't host anything or do many public appearances, but his book was still a best-seller.

I don't care whether Hanania is personally successful, but I really, really want the ideas in this book to gain widespread recognition. Hanania offers provide a plausible-enough plan to defeat not only wokeness, but also all of the ideologies that have gained popularity in the wake of Conservative Inc's failure to stop wokeness, including white nationalism and NRx. Speaking as a former white nationalist (or whatever you wanna call VDare readers), people with moderate temperaments adopt extreme beliefs because the mainstream hasn't offered any believable alternative.

Ben Shapiro says that we should just argue people into adopting our views because it'll suddenly work, even though we've been trying for years and it hasn't worked. Peter Brimelow says we should close the border and have white babies. Curtis Yarvin says that we should put a dictator in charge, or at least whatever FDR was. Caldwell says that we should repeal the Civil Rights Act, even though it's as much a part of our national identity at this point as the Constitution.

Hanania's proposal is essentially a modification of Caldwell's that takes political realities into account. Instead of repealing the Civil Rights Act, we should just re-interpret it in an originalist light and repeal the modifications made in the decades afterwards.

I can't say for certain why this book isn't making bank, but I theorize that it has to do with the fact that no mainstream conservative figure like a Ben Shapiro or a Steven Crowder has reviewed it or interviewed him. They're ignoring him, even though his politics are totally aligned with theirs, because they don't want to platform someone who was once a racist. National Review hasn't even reviewed The Origins of Woke.. and they reviewed Christopher Caldwell's Age of Entitlement!

So, here are three questions I have in no particular order.

  1. Why do you think the book isn't doing gangbusters?
  2. Why do you think Hanania's book is being ignored by the big players in conservative media?
  3. Is there a chance that even if the book remains obscure, its ideas will make their way to the people who matter?

Ben Shapiro says that we should just argue people into adopting our views because it'll suddenly work, even though we've been trying for years and it hasn't worked.

It hasn't worked in the sense that views critical of wokeness have not come to dominate society. However, it has worked in the sense that it has successfully convinced probably millions of people to be critical of wokeness who otherwise would not have. In short, critics of wokeness would be doing worse if they were not trying to argue people into adopting their views. Arguing people into their views so effectively that their views would come to dominate society is probably just an unrealistic goal.

As for Hanania's book, I doubt that more than a small fraction of his target book-buying audience knows about his past alter ego. Probably people, even those who are curious about questions of wokeness, do not spend enough time in online political spaces to have heard of it. Likewise, I doubt that most of the target audience follows Hanania on Twitter and is aware of the many ways in which he makes fun of right-wingers.

I think that his book is probably just selling/not selling for the same reasons as why other similar books sell or do not sell.

I think that the title is alright but not great. It is kind of boring, but it is not a turn-off. I doubt it moves the needle much one way or the other.

It's also possible that the book's fortunes will improve over time. This has happened to, for example, many movies.

Note: I have not actually read the book, I just like reading Hanania's online stuff from time and enjoy how he makes both left-wingers and right-wingers seethe. I'm not on board with all of his ideas, either. For example, lately he has been going on a tear of supporting free-market solutions, but I have some doubts that this approach would have been the best way of resolving the Great Depression. I'm open to being convinced otherwise, however.

It hasn't worked in the sense that views critical of wokeness have not come to dominate society.

I mean, they took the white house and supreme court and the majority of state assemblies, that's pretty dominant.

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