According to leftists, who dominate the discourse in the West, I am a nationalist and maybe even a white supremacist. However, here is a column with a translation of Eric Zemmour’s speech for seeking the presidency in France (hat tip: Mark Spahn). And it strongly resonates with me, as it does with the commenters at the site. It’s a strange sort of nationalism that has Americans like me cheering on some French guy.
But then this isn’t really about nationalism as such. It’s about being anti-elitist. I first noticed the problem with our elites shortly after 9/11. I assumed we could have unity because leftists had their own separate reasons (going back to Iran, 1979) for disliking Muslims. But it turned out that nearly every leftist had never known about those separate reasons, and all we have been hearing for a couple decades now has been their expressions of love for Muslims and hate for anyone who doesn’t share that love. One had to look outside of the West to find sane elites, but one could find here and there in the West a few brave souls who were standing up to our elites, whether in Britain, France, or Germany.
I’ve been told that the far right in Germany would be considered leftist here, but so what? We are all fighting the same elites. And while the elites think that what they see as the rise of nationalism would eventually give rise to yet another war between France and Germany, what seems more likely, if there is to be a war, is that each country would have a civil war between the elites and the anti-elites, with the anti-elites of the two countries allied with each other and the same for the elites.
This isn’t the nationalism of old.
In my own recent post on Zemmour, I called him a nationalist-populist in the Trumpian vein. He certainly evinces a great, unabashed love of country, or at least a love of the France he once knew. I don't think you're wrong to place so much focus on the elites, but my own admittedly limited reading of the situation is that it's more than just the elites who are likely to say something like, "I'm ashamed to be French." It's the French left in general that's that way. So while I'll happily grant that the elites are problematic, I'd contend the problem extends beyond the elites to the regular proles on the left. And that makes this a pernicious, pervasive social ill.
My own post:
https://bighominid.blogspot.com/2021/12/the-rise-of-eric-zemmour.html
Posted by: Kevin Kim | 12/01/2021 at 09:44 PM
You have an uncanny ability to post things on days that I happen not to post, so I don't get around to noticing your posts until the next day. Sorry.
Posted by: John Pepple | 12/03/2021 at 08:03 PM
By the way, I left a comment on your blog, though it didn't seem to work. Oh, well.
Posted by: John Pepple | 12/03/2021 at 08:11 PM
Your comment arrived while I was out on a 35K walk. I've approved it (the comment, not the walk), so it's on display now.
My uncanny ability may have something to do with living in Seoul, which is 14 hours ahead of the US east coast. No worries if my comments aren't approved right away. I'm patient.
Posted by: Kevin Kim | 12/03/2021 at 08:53 PM