Has The Dissident Right Gone Mainstream?

The answer depends on how online you are

It’s never been easier to discover “Dissident Right” viewpoints than in the current year. These once forbidden ideas now inspire some of the biggest names in conservative commentary. Tucker Carlson, Candace Owens, Matt Walsh, Charlie Kirk, Steven Crowder, various Blaze hosts, and a slew of others all echo Dissident Right ideas. Thanks to Elon Musk’s acquisition of X and the platform’s commitment to free speech, right-wing posts go viral all the time. The line between mainstream right and dissident right is very thin when it comes to the online sphere.

One could argue that the term Dissident Right (DR) is no longer relevant as it’s no longer restricted to the margins. It’s hard to be in dissent when the mainstream accepts your ideas. This is a valid position, but it comes with important caveats. The DR still lies at the margins when it comes to the Offline (aka real-world) Right and it’s not in the dominant position within the Online Right. It’s premature to declare victory for the Dissident Right.

First, we need to define some terminology.

The Dissident Right gained popularity after the implosion of the Alt Right. People desired a new term to distinguish themselves from the mainstream right while avoiding the now-toxic label of Alt Right. Coined by John Derbyshire in the early 2010s, Dissident Right was adopted as the replacement term. No one has been particularly happy with it, but in lieu of a better term, everyone has stuck with it. 

The DR hasn’t made as much of an impact on the Offline Right. The Offline Right would encompass all the real-world conservative institutions. The GOP, Fox News, talk radio, think tanks, and major print publications such as the Wall Street Journal would all fall within this sphere. The Online Right would include exclusively online outlets, podcasters, streamers, Twitter personalities, and substackers. The Offline Right obviously matters more in the real-world because it’s capable of making policy and reaches a greater number of people. The Offline Right is influenced to a degree by the Online Right. Some ideas, such as immigration restriction and non-interventionism, have gained in popularity in the real-world sphere. 

But not everything from Twitter ends up in party platforms. Even the most conservative lawmakers in Congress are still primarily obsessed with the debt and limited government—two issues that generate little interest online. While support for Israel is vigorously debated online, there is no debate within the Offline Right. The GOP and Fox News are militantly pro-Israel. Thomas Massie, the lone GOP congressman who criticizes Israel, may lose his seat in part due to this issue. 

Donald Trump himself shares commonalities with the DR, as do a few other Republicans. But, the Republican Party is still very different from the Dissident Right in style and substance. Some DR talking points made their way onto Fox (especially when Tucker was on-air), but the network isn’t VDARE. 

This could all change in the future. Young conservatives take more influence from the Online Right than from the Offline Right. These are the people who will shape the politics of the future. The ideas they embrace today could be the GOP platform of tomorrow. 

So far, the Dissident Right’s influence is mostly confined to the Online Right. This makes sense since it is an entirely online-based phenomenon. There aren’t any real-world institutions associated with it outside of a few publications. However, the DR has a slight impact on the Offline Right due to its influence over the Online Right. 

The DR isn’t in control of the Online Right. It has a space within the sphere, but it’s not the biggest element within it. It would be wrong to say The Blaze and Turning Point USA are Dissident Right. The dominant figures are not identitarians. They’re either standard conservatives or anti-woke liberals. But most of them will still entertain identitarian ideas, such as the Great Replacement and the seriousness of anti-white racism. 

The Online Right is a chaotic conglomeration of many different factions and groups. It includes QAnoners, libertarians, integralists, monarchists, Christian nationalists, conspiracy theorists, homesteaders, vitalists, wellness fanatics, America Firsters, classic conservatives, and a host of others. A lot of this stuff gets jumbled together as the major figures seek maximum engagement by trying to appeal to every niche group possible. Unlike with the Alt Right, it’s hard to determine the ideological focus of the Online Right. The one defining trait of the Online Right is its opposition to the Left.

Identitarians and nationalists have to jostle to get our opinions out there. While big X accounts and podcasters will discuss these ideas, we often have to compete with some very stupid alternatives. If there is one dominant strand among the Online Right, it would be conspiracy theories. It’s understandable why conspiracy theories are so popular. It’s an established fact that the government and media often lie to the people. When some discover this, they begin to wonder what else they’re lying about. This can lead to a healthy level of skepticism about official narratives. But it can also lead to incredible levels of idiocy.

Many of the conspiracy theories promoted on our side distract from obvious truths. They are fantastical concoctions designed by cynical grifters just wanting to boost engagement. You saw this with the Baltimore bridge collapse. Even though nearly everyone involved was non-white and a foreigner, online grifters have determined to blame anything but diversity. The favored theory is that it was a direct attack by either the Deep State or China. No evidence is presented, but these tweets still get tens of thousands of likes. 

Content farming is the prevailing passion of the Online Right. Whatever will increase viewership or retweets will be posted. Identitarianism is just one part of this smorgasbord of content options. Influencers will sometimes blame non-white violence on demonic possession or some other otherworldly phenomenon rather than state the obvious. Important points get obscured within the Insane Clown Party.

It’s a major sign of progress that DR views are now widely shared and debated. But it comes with the downside of the intellectual and political movement being associated with a lot of stupidity. That’s just part of the package. It’s far too early to say the DR is now the mainstream right. There is far too much work to do. 

In the meantime, it may be better to come up with a better term than Dissident Right. The phrase speaks of marginalization when we’re no longer confined to the fringes. It also doesn’t clarify what we actually stand for—it just connotes that we lack any power. A better way to stress the difference between us and mainstream conservatives is to embrace identitarianism. We do stress the identity issues above all other concerns. The rest of the Right still hasn’t embraced that position.

When it does, we will be the mainstream Right.