You're Not A Normie

There's no need to become Swifties to win over NPCs

There’s a common assumption among right-wingers that the normies are secretly BASED. All we gotta do to win them over is be more normal ourselves. It is good advice to tell people to calm down on the kookiness and understand how your message sounds to regular folks. But many take it too far and insist we must undergo normiefication ourselves. These arguments end up supporting the basic status quo, negating the whole purpose of right-wing politics.

A great example of this is the concept of “Swiftian Normality.” The phrase was coined by an anon who goes by the nom de guerre “Edmund Smirk.” The concept refers to Taylor Swift and how she represents normal America. It’s similar to what I wrote about the pop star last year. As I argued then:

Swift and middle-class whites are maintaining many bourgeois standards. They’re not dressing like wiggers, they’re not getting face tats, and they’re not speaking in Ebonics. For the most part, they’re still clean-cut and respectable. They’re working white-collar jobs and still desire the American Dream.

Smirk shares this view, and adds basketball sensation Caitlin Clark to his thesis. He argues the two women embody an America the Right must defend. They exemplify “normality” against wokeness. This is the proper alternative to the “Freak Right” (Smirk’s term for the Insane Clown Party) that dispenses with middle-class standards. The writer says we need a “Girldad Right” instead:

At its very simplest, the Girldad Right supports Swiftian Normality. More than that, however, its members accurately recognize Swift for who she currently is: the “Mother Teresa of pop culture,” as I have come to (half-jokingly) call her, and a great role model for girls and young women, provided that their parents have not totally deprived them of basic moral instruction. The Girldad Right is about preparing your daughter for a hard life, while hoping that she has an easy one. Central to the achievement of this goal is being a positive, masculine role model who takes an active interest in all those “girly” things she enjoys doing that you would, otherwise, ignore. It is not about sacrificing your fundamental values by becoming a “squish”; it is about instilling them in the next generation by remaining Normal. When Swifties saw a clip of 6’5” Kelce gently cradling his baby niece like a football, they collectively melted. This is the way forward.

While Smirk’s commentary resembles what I’ve said about Swift and the ICP, his argument descends into the absurd. We do not need a “Girldad Right.” We need a Right that seriously addresses the Great Replacement and other civilizational threats. A Right centered around indulging normie tastes—especially those of left-leaning women—would be idiotic. We need to push normies in the proper direction, not embrace the status quo that makes them complacent.

Swift and Clark are relatively harmless figures. They’re very basic figures and that’s central to the appeal. They are both girls next door making it big. They don’t have tattoos, they’re not into drugs, they’re not sporting bizarre fashion choices, and they largely uphold old bourgeois norms. Clark is resolutely apolitical, while Swift used to be. 

They are better for young women to look up to than rappers and Instagram influencers, but they do not need to be defended by the Right. They represent the status quo, and no one outside the fringes is bothered by them. Some leftists will bemoan the whiteness of Swift and Clark, and some conservatives will attack Swift as a deep state op. But these critics aren’t driving the primary currents in our society. Swift and Clark are extremely popular in multicultural America and upheld as icons by the mainstream media. Neither is a reactionary, nor is anyone threatening to cancel them. They are American life. This is akin to wanting to embrace Lululemon to stick to an imaginary counter-force against the popular clothing brand. It’s just something that’s there. It doesn’t signify a rejection of woke. 

They both do represent “progress” from a left-wing perspective as well. Swift extols a girlboss lifestyle for her fans and endorses Democrats and abortion. Her stature at the pinnacle of entertainment is a major victory for feminism. Clark has made millions of Americans seriously watch women’s basketball, which, despite her incredible athleticism, is incredibly cringe. Conservatives once mocked the idea of watching women’s sports. Now they don Caitlin Clark jerseys and proudly head to the nearest bar to watch her play. That’s another victory for feminism. 

This is far from the counter-revolution against wokeness Edmund Smirk imagines. 

What is more ridiculous is the name “Girldad Right.” Girldads are partially why we are in our present mess. Rather than acting as paterfamilias, too many dads act as serfs toward their daughters. Instead of positively directing them in life, a large number of girldads simply fund their daughters’ bad decisions. No matter what they do, they will be there to slave away for them, acting as paypigs to underwrite their daughters’ stupid decisions. Girldads offering completely unrealistic advice to their daughters may be why so many young women follow the path of Taylor Swift and fail to build healthy relationships. A girldad is something different than being a father of daughters. It signifies a particular type of cringe that we don’t need to uphold.

There is a need to understand regular, offline America. The online world can suck people into walled-off ghettos that leave them unable to comprehend the rest of the country. It makes them adopt a lot of ridiculous ideas, such as thinking we’re on the verge of establishing an Orthodox theocracy in Appalachia. Extreme anti-normieism also attracts malcontents who share a lot of traits with school shooters. These misfits take to the Online Right as a way to express their disaffection. Much of what they want is off-putting to ordinary people. There is a degree of “grass touching” warranted to keep us from flying off to the fantasy land of outcasts.

But the fundamental truth is that if you are into “dissident right” ideas, you are not a normie. The embrace of these forbidden ideas are a rejection of mainstream American society. Normie America thinks “racism” is one of the worst sins imaginable. Normie America loves weed, rap, sports betting, and Marvel movies. Normie America is largely content with the status quo. If there is any silent majority, this is it.

The dissident/online/new right is very different. It entirely repudiates the aforementioned way of thinking. People who embrace our ideas believe there is something fundamentally rotten with the country. They’re not thrilled with Marvel movies and betting apps. They want radical changes to make this country great again, not slight tweaks that don’t rock the boat.

Dissident views come with a cost. Getting exposed as holding them can lead to job loss and major reputational damage. It’s why people are anon on the internet. There’s no need to be anon when your politics are “Swiftian Normality.” That’s just another way to say “status quo,” and no one will cancel you for stanning Taylor Swift.

The Right needs to cut down on the clown show and ground itself more in the real world. But this doesn’t require purchases to Taylor Swift shows and paeans to self-proclaimed “girldads.” We’re not normies—and that’s fine. If we were normies, we wouldn’t care about this stuff in the first place. The Great Replacement would just be us changing the propane tank for our grill.