Listen to the rest of this premium episode by subscribing at <a href="https://www.patreon.com/posts/107982813?utm_campaign=postshare_creator" rel="noopener noreferrer">patreon.com/knowyourenemy.</a>
On Monday, Manhattan Institute fellow Chris Rufo posted this: "The Right's collective brain is getting melted in a vat of slop, conspiracy, and algorithm-chasing. An intelligent man will guard himself against all of it." Given that Rufo was, after J.D. Vance, perhaps the most prominent Haitians-are-eating-pets-in-Ohio conspiracy theorist in the country, his complaint generated many, many responses rightfully calling him out for his lack of self-awareness and his own role in mainstreaming such a politics. As our friend John Ganz <a href="https://www.unpopularfront.news/p/i-told-you-so?utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email&triedRedirect=true" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">wrote</a>, "Is this hypocrisy, stupidity, or unabashed malevolence? Try all three: it’s politics. Specifically, it’s the politics of the American Conservative Movement. People cry out for a new William F. Buckley. Give the title to Rufo, I say; he’s doing the job already."
In this episode we talked to Ganz about how the dynamic Rufo identified has always been a feature of the postwar conservative movement, stretching back at least to William F. Buckley, Jr. and Brent Bozell's defense of McCarthyism; what's distinctive about the Right's present slop era, especially the alignment of conservative movement propagandists, the Republican Party, and the state; populism and the "Madisonian model"; and more!
Sources:
John Ganz, "<a href="https://open.substack.com/pub/johnganz/p/i-told-you-so?utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">I Told You So...</a>" Unpopular Front, Feb 24, 2026
— "<a href="https://newrepublic.com/article/156368/finding-neverland-conservative-quest-rid-trumpism" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Finding Neverland: The American right’s doomed quest to rid itself of Trumpism</a>," New Republic, Feb 17, 2020
Olivia Bellusci, "<a href="https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/celebrity/articles/candace-owens-drops-trailer-investigative-154640508.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Candace Owens Drops Trailer for Investigative Series About Erika Kirk Months After Charlie’s Death</a>," Yahoo, Feb 24, 2026
Matthew Sitman, "<a href="https://www.commonwealmagazine.org/riding-trump-tiger" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Riding the Trump Tiger</a>," Commonweal, Aug 7, 2015
Nathan Taylor Pemberton, "<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2026/02/13/style/slopulism-trump-conservative-social-media.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Is ‘Slopulism’ Shaping Our Politics?</a>" New York Times, Feb 13, 2026
Ruby Cramer, "<a href="https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/rubycramer/you-dont-know-bernie-sanders" rel="noopener noreferrer">You Don't Know Bernie Sanders</a>," Buzzfeed, Dec 16, 2019. 
Walter J. Ong, <a href="https://monoskop.org/images/d/db/Ong_Walter_J_Orality_and_Literacy_2nd_ed.pdf" rel="noopener noreferrer">Orality and Literacy: The Technologizing of the Word</a>, (1982)

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Standing Athwart History, Yelling "Slop!" (w/ John Ganz) [Teaser]

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