 look at that beautiful view. Sydney Harbour. It's about 6pm. We've been walking all day but I'm going to miss this opportunity to warn you about the rise of semi-fascism. That's semi-fascism guys, it's all around us. Can't be too careful. South Florida has attracted a huge collection of professional conservatives with national aspirations way from New York and Washington DC to dictate not toward the former president in Palm Beach but rather toward the state's governor, Ron DeSantis. The near unanimous favorite 2024 presidential contender of both the movement and the party's establishment. Okay, so this is Jonathan Shate writing in New York magazine about the rise of a semi-fascist party the republicans in the United States. Semi-fascist guys, you can't be too careful. The Marriott were teeming with conservative networkers and the panels were especially well-stocked with a class of once-marginal right-wing pundits Joshua Hammer, Sean Davis, Molly Hemingway, Michael Anton, David Reboi Semi-fascist. with the desires of the audience then the largely Trump skeptical class of incumbent conservative columnists who still make appearances in the mainstream media but the conference's speakers were not confined to the kind of insurgent figures who provide color at freak show events like seatback or even previous iterations of the National Conservatism Conference quite the opposite. At times the gathering had the flavor of a party convention this year's roster included the presidential candidate favored by the party's establishment in 2016, Marco Rubio who conspicuously included himself in the movement's ranks those of us who call ourselves National Conservatives it featured in addition to DeSantis I'll admit that phrase National Conservatives sounds rather lame but Marco Rubio is in this movement guys, it must be semi-fascist the head of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, Rick Scott Josh Hall Rick Scott's so incompetent I don't think he could organize his way out of a paper bag The junior senator from Missouri the financier Peter Thiel and several candidates for Congress they were joined by some of the leading lights of the conservative intelligentsia people who command large social media followings head powerful think tanks or have held influential positions in government John Yu very scary, all these very powerful people they're flirting with semi-fascism don't let this beautiful side of nature lower your alarm levels we can overcome this together guys nothing says fascism like Edmund Burke 18th century British intellectual conservative organs including the Heritage Foundation the Claremont Institute and the Hillsdale College Graduate School of Government wow, what a bunch of semi-fascists when they walk among us that's what's so scary but while every political conference has points of disagreement and speakers harping on their chosen hobby horse this one was striking in its unified view of the world the participants face and the response they believe is necessary okay the unified view of the world is American nationalism alright I think we should emphasize that which brings us together rather than that which takes us apart how scary okay is that wrong? how is that wrong? how is that inaccurate? the left dominates every major institution except the military and parts of business it is spreading and enforcing a not just left wing ideology okay so from conservative perspective how is that false? how is that not accurate? this poses an existential threat to conservatism culturally and politically conservatives must therefore fight back by using state power to crush their enemies on the left oh so they should instead just fight fair alright even though the left dominates the cultural high grounds the left dominates the means of cultural production the right shouldn't fight back too hard they should just leave things to the free market a notable break for a movement that in the pre-Trump days had at least pretended to stand against big government well it did actually stand against big government Ronald Reagan slashed social welfare spending the federal government's percentage of the GDP went by one down by one percentage point from like 19 to 18 that is significant it's not so much that they had changed their policy goals or even their political strategy as that they had lost faith in the potential for normal politics to function every one of them demanded extraordinary measures that is called iron fisted rule okay why are they demanding extraordinary measures because they see that no matter how often they win at the ballot box such as Proposition 187 denied benefits to illegal aliens that was struck down by the courts so the right consistently wins at the ballot box but keeps falling further behind so yeah it's probably time to rethink how you do things the only alternative to political extinction a few samples of the rhetoric from the stage give the overall flavor Rachel Boulevard the senior director of policy at the conservative partnership institute wokeism is not a fever that will pass but a cancer that must be eradicated and the free market won't do it she added that in his new reality the only institution with the power to contend with and conquer the woke industrial complex is the government of the United States conservative lawyer and former human events publisher Will Chamberlain we're not in a peaceful environment and the key objective must now be the way of conservative ends okay so what was it that Obama's chief of staff said let a crisis go to waste but the left and the right try to use power to further what they believe in why would you expect anything different Senator Scott the militant left wing in this country have become the enemy within Hillsdale professor David Azarad imagine if we had a core of Republicans who were committed to defund and humiliate the institutional power sectors of the left okay two models for the emerging right wings so this isn't very nice but I don't see what's so shocking yeah there are enemies there are profound disagreements there are elements of the right but they want to cede power to the left they came up repeatedly the first was the dissent as governorship attendees were entranced by his war on the left yeah compared to Donald Trump DeSantis seems like a more competent chief executive particularly admired his retaliation against Disney for having criticized his restrictions on LGBTQ plus discussions in schools which critics call the don't say gay law DeSantis had had the guts to punish one of the state's most powerful firms and the conferees believed shown how all of corporate America could be brought to heel why would people on the right not applaud that seems like an applause winning action for people on the right the other model was Orban's Hungary so Viktor Orban and Hungary have resisted the great migration from the Middle East they have maintained their culture they have not let in all these immigrants from Libya and Syria places like that seems like a good thing to me I'm impressed with the seemingly ubiquitous Hungarians I now have a copy of the latest issue of Hungarian conservative now I've let my subscription loss lapse to Hungarian conservative but I'm just curious what's the latest issue of Hungarian conservative all about these Hungarians were greeted as liberators an Orban's regime which has taken control of the judiciary, the press and the universities while using corruption to pressure major businesses to support the government was the object of widespread envy ah, so the right should be happy that the left controls universities the media much of business all the professions parts of the military schooling NGOs, the right should just simply be happy to see that power to the left the European Union recently voted to withhold funds to Hungary which it has deemed no longer democratic well, if the European Union has decided that who am I to argue for the European Union Orban's American admirers see this response merely as confirmation that he is making the correct enemies these liberal critics have sometimes compared his methods to Orban's so Viktor Orban and Ron DeSantis weren't effective do you think the left would be attacking them as much as they do but at the conference this comparison was invoked as praise a DeSantis spoke Viktor Orban and Hungary resisted massive migration and massive numbers of illegal immigrants why would you not praise that why would you not be on board with that an Orban spokesperson pointed to DeSantis's government as affirmation of the Hungarian leader's actions that Orban and DeSantis are both colorless functionaries on to drive home the fact that this movement is not, as its critics often hear a personality cult right, it's not a personality cult it's a reasonable, rational, even healthy response to the left consistently winning on the playing field the left dominating the means of cultural production the left dominating many of our institutions Viktor Orban and Ron DeSantis are not maybe stunning personalities that overwhelm you with their charisma many of the conference members retain an affection for Trump but they are not hung up on him personally so much that they are mobilized to wage war on his enemies okay, we did not evolve to be stupid and gullible, he evolved to be very very good at discerning other people trying to manipulate us alright, so people aren't stupid and they support Donald Trump or Joe Biden people are furthering their interests the type of people who supported Hitler did so because he was in alignment with their own interests and values people who genuinely supported Stalin did so because this way was aligned with their own interests and values we did not evolve to be gullible we weren't born yesterday we have evolved very sophisticated means and other people are trying to manipulate us against our best interests the appeal of semi-fascism in Hungary and its incipient version in Florida lies not but that is just hysterical Viktor Orban and semi-fascism and incipient fascism in Florida and Jonathan Che makes some good responses he's not exactly not exactly particularly strong here okay, I had to make some very awkward editing decisions very awkward move the camera away I didn't realize I was walking past a nude beast beach alright I'm gonna make a live stream and there's suddenly a naked dude showing up on the beach this is high quality family entertainment and the whole family can gather around enjoy these quality live streams let's try to keep the nudity to a minimum guys seen from the inside, fascist movements historically feel encircled and vulnerable everyone feels encircled and vulnerable alright everyone feels like a victim there's no one who doesn't feel like a victim like all forms of group identity and contain substantial elements of victim order alright, if you're strongly identifying as Jewish or Christian or black or white Irish, English remember how your people were oppressed and harmed by outsiders that contributes to your in-group identity there's nothing fascist about feeling encircled and oppressed there's a function a group identity of which I'm aware I grew up with some of the Adventists and that was the group identity many people had there we were being persecuted Catholics feel persecuted Protestants feel persecuted Jews feel persecuted everyone feels persecuted and the same holds true for today's semi-fascist right what's more, their sense of weakness is not always a matter of pure imagination it is true that social values around race and gender have moved left towards since Barack Obama's second term it's true yeah, left has increasing control of the means of cultural production that's what's going on who that the mainstream media treats claims by Republicans more skeptically than it has in the past and it is also true that popular culture and corporate America have reviled Donald Trump yeah, that is true alright, so the right is not content to just lie back and take it the right is not content to just keep on losing the vibe against an ever-on-rushing left that's beautiful Sydney Harbour this is the heritage track from these isolated strand we're in this article that heritage is a code word for fascist so this is the fascist track that I'm on right now heritage is code word for fascist I read it in New York Magazine Jonathan Fair told me so heritage sites scary, scary places over hill, over dale our love will never fail really? I'm noticing the unrushing power of the left is that really a blind spot to miss a liberal society's ability to moderate moderations and typically get people's blood flowing people like extremism people like, feel passionate people want to be engaged people want a righteous mission people want to crusade a jihad okay, I'm at Point Nielsen Peak Shark Beach, Shark Beach that sounds nice, doesn't it? in the real world Democrats nominated their most moderate candidate in 2020 the party is now actively funding the police thank God for that and did Joe Biden actually govern as the moderate? no tried to be a transformational president of the left he didn't govern the moderate way he didn't try to build across party coalitions thanks mate this is just a wonderful walk, isn't it? around Sydney Arbor OK, so when people get fired up they tend to drop nuanced when people get fired up they tend to paint their enemies particularly dastardly and powerful that's true that's a good critique well that was a very scary time and it kicked off enormous increase in murder rates and other forms of crime so that's a good critique they have looked at the angry atmosphere of the post-George Floyd protests as the starting point of a social revolution that they fear will only accelerate well that was a very scary time and it kicked off enormous increase in murder rates and other forms of crime so it makes sense to me that professional conservatives would be particularly alarmed about the post-George Floyd era and all the left-wing rhetoric about the funding of police and the media and our national elites saying that police are just being too assertive and aggressive we need them to calm down we need them to back off we need them to allow more more illegal behavior we shouldn't arrest people shouldn't be writing so many tickets and as a result pedestrian deaths of sword traffic deaths of sword I wonder people on the right are alone oh come on come on here trying to run a very classy YouTube show here we go so both the left and the right tend to paint caricatures of each other I agree ok to be continued