Indecisive Dave is a well-remembered but rather one-dimensional character from The Fast Show, a brilliant UK comedy sketch show from the 1990s.
Dave's characteristic behaviour is to constantly change his mind and opinions to fit in with the people around him:
Yes, it's funny because there are real people like this.
The even funnier thing is that so many of them are in now the Dissident Right.
Over the years, my opinions have hardly shifted. I still more or less believe what I believed 10, 20, or even 30 years ago, although I now know a lot more. Not so for the leading lights of the Dissident Right, who have trouble not only keeping their views and opinions lined up over two or three years, but over five minutes.
The even funnier thing is that so many of them are in now the Dissident Right.
Over the years, my opinions have hardly shifted. I still more or less believe what I believed 10, 20, or even 30 years ago, although I now know a lot more. Not so for the leading lights of the Dissident Right, who have trouble not only keeping their views and opinions lined up over two or three years, but over five minutes.
Don't believe me? Well, have a listen:
Wow, a brilliant exposition on the way that Trump throws chum to his dumb supporters to keep them energised and on board, while effectively giving them nothing that they actually want.
I did a somewhat more sophisticated analysis of this phenomenon HERE and HERE.
Anyway, based on the above clip, Fuentes is clearly a hard core nationalist with a direct and unnuanced view of illegal immigration. He isn't about to tolerate illegals in his neighbourhood, is he?
I did a somewhat more sophisticated analysis of this phenomenon HERE and HERE.
Anyway, based on the above clip, Fuentes is clearly a hard core nationalist with a direct and unnuanced view of illegal immigration. He isn't about to tolerate illegals in his neighbourhood, is he?
Except he is:
Yup, the above clip completely undercuts and contradicts the previous clip. If Fuentes is personally turning a blind eye to illegals in his neighbourhood and is cool with them being there, why is he so hard on Trump's anti-immigration rhetoric being a bit hollow? It just doesn't add up. It's like two different people speaking.
Not sure which one of these clips is first, but it doesn't really matter, as I believe there is another video somewhere where Fuentes talks proudly about his own "migrant" heritage.
Fuentes does this shapeshifting all the time -- and it has to be said with great skill -- but he's not an anomaly in the Dissident Right. They are all at it, which makes you wonder what the whole thing's really about, something on which I have a few theories of my own.
Not sure which one of these clips is first, but it doesn't really matter, as I believe there is another video somewhere where Fuentes talks proudly about his own "migrant" heritage.
Fuentes does this shapeshifting all the time -- and it has to be said with great skill -- but he's not an anomaly in the Dissident Right. They are all at it, which makes you wonder what the whole thing's really about, something on which I have a few theories of my own.
___________________________________
Colin Liddell is the Chief Editor of Neokrat and the author of Interviews & Obituaries, a collection of encounters with the dead and the famous. Support his work by buying his book here (USA), here (UK), and here (Australia), or by taking out a paid subscription on his Substack.
Follow on Twitter and Bluesky
Follow on Twitter and Bluesky
Yes agree. Because the American based internet DR is entirely based on words. It really started with commenters arguing with media opinions - ie arguing that the words the media used to describe reality were wrong. The commenters didn't really have any plan of action to change reality, they were mainly concerned with correcting media descriptions of reality. And it's gone on from there. The best way to become a DR thought leader was to generate the largest and most constant volume of words. And the thing about words is that you can them, unsay them and twist them around and around to suit whatever audience you want to appeal to at the time. Unlike say policy or real world actions - which are 'sticky'. Plus because you are constantly talking shit it is inevitable that you will contradict yourself. Plus because the audience is bored and is really following for drama - the constant shifts (heelturns as the yanks call them) are a feature not a bug. And of course Trump is the master of this, he is a very subtle example of the trade because his big buildings, masculine persona and hot women - make him look like a man of action.
ReplyDelete