FanDuel Americans

They aren't woke or particularly political--and America's future looks bright to them

Should Americans be optimistic about the future? Mike Cernovich seems to think so. “I know it’s the cool trend of conservatives to talk about how everything sucks but I’ve never seen a time when more men train BJJ, gun sales are up, the young guys all want to start businesses. I’m long America,” he posted on X last weekend.

This probably isn’t enough to convince the Highly Respected audience to be whitepilled, but there are a lot of Americans who can feel positive about tomorrow—and they aren’t leftists. This is a larger group than Cernovich’s hypothetical demographic. They’re not just guys doing a combination of Brazilian jiu-jitsu, owning tons of guns, and running their own business. They’re often doing a lot less than that. What distinguishes this group is that they’re young and not woke. They aren’t reactionaries and don’t desire a counter-revolution. They’re even fine with many of the changes that characterize multicultural America. What they want is a country that allows them to earn a living and have plenty of amusements free of politics. 

They are FanDuel Americans—and they’ve got a lot to look forward to in the new America.

The term “Barstool Conservative” has often been applied to this group, but it’s not the best way to see them. That label was coined by writer Matthew Walther to bemoan the American Right’s increasing lack of interest in traditional social conservatism. It’s an explicitly political orientation. FanDuel Americanism is much broader. It’s a social and cultural mood that can impact politics, but its disposition is about deprioritizing politics. It’s about distracting yourself from the problems of the world in a non-woke, bro-y way. 

One of the main outlets for that is FanDuel and other sports betting apps. Barstool is less of an outlet for this, and the site is too associated with Dave Portnoy’s idiosyncratic politics and habits. The media enterprise is also a bit more bourgeois than what FanDuel Americanism represents. The cultural libertarianism of the FanDuel Americans includes many proletarian elements.

I’ve tried to find a term to describe this particular cultural trend for a while. There are signs of it all around us. Country songs topping the Billboard charts, a movie celebrating Red State America becoming the biggest movie of the summer, sports leagues dropping mandatory pride gear, gun ownership going up, and other such things. This is less of a cultural backlash and more of a sidestepping of wokeness. With the exception of Jason Aldean’s “Try That In A Small Town,” these elements are about depoliticizing culture. They don’t attack woke; they just aren’t woke.

FanDuel Americans/ism is the best way to describe this phenomenon. America now offers plenty of ways to distract yourself free of politics. Individual choice has never been stronger and more sacrosanct. A person is allowed in America to legally buy weed, place a bet, get a abortion (in most states), change their gender, marry whoever they want, watch whatever they want, and do whatever they want to their body. There’s an endless array of options of what to do with your time. You can play video games or watch porn all day and there’s no one to stop you. Dating apps offer the appearance of unlimited choice of who you want to court and/or sleep with. Individual choice reigns supreme in modern America.

The only real limitations are on whether you can express “bigoted” views in public, but that’s something policed by society rather than the government. 

To many right-wingers, this future looks like a nightmare. A nation of rootless, disconnected individuals all merely striving to please themselves and make money is not inspiring. This nation could never motivate its population to fight and die for its survival. If there are no higher ideals or rooted traditions to bind people together, why would people risk their lives for the state? They’ve got too many FanDuel parlays to worry about. 

FanDuel Americans also greatly disappoint the woke. They don’t want to hear about gender theory. They don’t want to check their white privilege. They don’t want to protest for racial justice. And they certainly don’t want to read the latest Ibram X. Kendi book. They just want to watch the game and amuse themselves. Anything that gets in the way of that agitates them. They see wokeness as a hindrance to fun, and therefore oppose it. 

The difference between right-wingers and FanDuel Americans is that the latter don’t pine for some lost Golden Age. They like the current era; they want fewer annoyances and more access to the distractions.

There are many things that blackpill right-wingers that don’t upset FanDuel Americans. Eroding WASP norms and new ones that approve of visible tattoos and smoking weed in public? The FanDuel American doesn’t know what a “WASP” is, doesn’t mind tattoos, and smokes weed himself. Radically changing demographics that’s making America less white? The FanDuel American doesn’t care, brags about his black friends, and thinks diversity makes his favorite team better. Nobody going to church? The FanDuel American doesn’t go either. Everyone wasting money on sports bets and OnlyFans? So does the FanDuel American.

The FanDuel American has some conservative instincts. He likes the free market. He supports the troops. He stands for the National Anthem. He doesn’t list his pronouns.

But this isn’t what he truly cares about. He cares about distractions, and he strives to make enough money to pursue them. He likes the fact that there are now several get-rich-quick schemes to have a chance at reaching this goal, whether through crypto or drop shipping. 

This demographic isn’t that politically-motivated (as politics aren’t what define them), but Donald Trump is trying hard to win them over. He’s gone on several bro-y podcasts to appeal to them and has championed the cause of crypto. He pitches himself as the fun candidate who will allow the FanDuel Americans to pursue their happiness in peace. Trump has at least made FanDuel Americans like him, but whether they’ll actually turn up to vote is another matter. Young men aren’t known for showing up on Election Day.

FanDuel Americans have a lot of reasons to feel optimistic about America’s future. This country will offer them more of what they want while lacking nothing they care particularly about. America will still be a great place to focus on yourself and your own amusements. People can still tune out politics and be relatively happy. They might notice a different country, but will it bother them?

I wouldn’t bet on it.