# The New Right The ideological ecosystem that replaced Reagan-era "fusionism" — the old three-legged stool of neoconservatives, libertarians, and the Christian right — with a post-liberal, anti-establishment, often explicitly anti-democratic coalition. If the old right was defined by free markets, muscular internationalism, and social conservatism, [[the New Right]] is defined by what it *rejects*: liberalism itself. **Core thesis:** The New Right is not a single movement but a loose ecosystem of overlapping factions that agree on what they oppose (liberal democracy, progressive cultural hegemony, globalization) while disagreeing sharply on what should replace it. What makes the ecosystem powerful — and dangerous — is precisely this factional diversity: it can present as libertarian tech optimism in Sand Hill Road, Catholic social teaching at a NatCon conference, and antisemitic meme warfare on [[Telegram]], while the personnel and funding networks connect all three. → For the tech-oligarchy layer, see [[Defense Tech Ecosystem]], [[DOGE Ecosystem]], [[Dark Money Ecosystem]] → For the ideological deep cuts, see [[Dark Enlightenment]], [[Catholic Post-Liberalism]], [[TESCREAL]] → For the institutional machinery, see [[Think Tank Ecosystem]], [[Media Ecosystem]] --- ## The Factions The New Right can be mapped as concentric rings: an intellectual core, organized political factions, adjacent pipelines that funnel people rightward, and a media/culture infrastructure that connects everything. ### Ring 1: The Intellectual Core These are the factions with developed ideological frameworks — the idea factories. #### 1. Neoreaction / Dark Enlightenment (NRx) **The techno-authoritarian vanguard.** Democracy is a failed experiment; society should be governed by a CEO-king; "exit over voice." Developed by [[Curtis Yarvin]] (as [[Mencius Moldbug]]) and elaborated by [[Nick Land]]. The theoretical operating system behind much of Silicon Valley's anti-democratic turn. **Key figures:** [[Curtis Yarvin]], [[Nick Land]], [[Peter Thiel]], [[Balaji Srinivasan]] **Key concepts:** [[The Cathedral]], [[Patchwork]], RAGE (Retire All Government Employees), exit over voice **Institutional home:** Blogs → Urbit → Thiel network → DOGE **See:** [[Dark Enlightenment]] #### 2. Claremont / West Coast Straussians **The constitutional crisis theorists.** America's founding principles have been captured by a progressive administrative state; the only remedy is executive power wielded by a leader willing to smash the bureaucracy. The "intellectual wing of Trumpism" — they gave MAGA a constitutional vocabulary. **Key figures:** [[Michael Anton]], [[John Eastman]], Larry Arnn, Charles Kesler, Christopher Caldwell **Key texts:** "[[The Flight 93 Election]]" (Anton, 2016), *The Age of Entitlement* (Caldwell, 2020) **Institutional home:** [[Claremont Institute]], Claremont Review of Books, [[Hillsdale College]], American Mind **See:** [[Claremont Institute]] #### 3. Catholic Post-Liberalism / Integralism **The theocratic intellectuals.** Liberalism — including conservative liberalism — is spiritually bankrupt. Society should be ordered toward the common good as defined by Catholic social teaching, with the state actively promoting virtue. "[[Integralism]]" is the harder version: the state should be formally subordinate to the Church. **Key figures:** [[Patrick Deneen]], [[Sohrab Ahmari]], [[Adrian Vermeule]], Gladden Pappin, Chad Pecknold **Key texts:** *[[Why Liberalism Failed]]* (Deneen, 2018), *[[Against the Dead Consensus]]* (Ahmari et al.), *Regime Change* (Deneen, 2023) **Institutional home:** [[First Things]], [[Compact Magazine]], Postliberal Order (Substack), University of Notre Dame, Harvard Law School (Vermeule) **See:** [[Catholic Post-Liberalism]] #### 4. National Conservatism (NatCon) **The big-tent organizers.** The faction that turned intellectual energy into a political program. Pro-nation-state, anti-globalization, pro-industrial policy, culturally conservative. Functions as the *coalition-builder* that waters down each faction's extremes into something electable: the racism of the alt-right becomes "immigration skepticism," the theocracy of the integralists becomes "[[Judeo-Christian values]]," the authoritarianism of NRx becomes "strong executive." **Key figures:** [[Yoram Hazony]], [[JD Vance]], [[Peter Thiel]], [[Tucker Carlson]], [[Josh Hawley]], [[Marco Rubio]], [[Christopher Rufo]] **Key texts:** *The Virtue of Nationalism* (Hazony, 2018), the NatCon Statements of Principles **Institutional home:** [[Edmund Burke Foundation]], NatCon conferences, [[American Affairs]] journal, [[American Compass]] (Oren Cass) **See:** [[National Conservatism]] #### 5. Vitalism / BAP-osphere **The aesthetic reactionaries.** Anti-egalitarian, anti-modern, obsessed with physical beauty, classical antiquity, and Nietzschean "greatness." Disguises far-right ideology in bodybuilding culture, classical aesthetics, and ironic internet prose. Functions as the cool-kid pipeline for young men into harder-right ideology. **Key figures:** [[Bronze Age Pervert]] (BAP), Raw Egg Nationalist, Zero HP Lovecraft **Key texts:** *[[Bronze Age Mindset]]* (BAP, 2018) **Institutional home:** Twitter/X, anon Substacks, Passage Press; increasingly published in Claremont Review of Books **See:** [[Vitalism (New Right)]] --- ### Ring 2: Organized Political Factions These are movements with organized followings, media operations, and direct political influence. #### 6. Groyper Movement / America First **The young, extremely online far right.** White nationalist, antisemitic, anti-immigration, explicitly Christian nationalist. Led by [[Nick Fuentes]] and his "Groyper army." Positioned to the *right* of mainstream conservative organizations — they attacked Turning Point USA from the right. Repeatedly laundered into mainstream politics via proximity to Trump. **Key figures:** [[Nick Fuentes]], [[Ali Alexander]] (pre-Jan 6), Patrick Casey **Institutional home:** [[America First]] Political Action Conference (AFPAC), Cozy.tv, Telegram channels **See:** [[Groyper Movement]] #### 7. Paleoconservative Legacy **The OG dissidents.** The intellectual tradition that *preceded* and *enabled* the New Right. Anti-interventionist, immigration-restrictionist, culturally traditionalist, often explicitly ethno-nationalist. [[Pat Buchanan]]'s 1992 "culture war" speech at the RNC was the prototype; the paleocon network of magazines and think tanks incubated the people who would become the alt-right. **Key figures:** Pat Buchanan, [[Samuel Francis]], [[Paul Gottfried]], [[John Tanton]], [[Jared Taylor]], [[Steve Sailer]] **Key texts:** Buchanan's *The Death of [[the West]]* (2002), Francis's *Leviathan and Its Enemies* **Institutional home:** The American Conservative, Chronicles magazine, VDare, [[FAIR]], CIS ([[Center for Immigration Studies]]) **See:** [[Paleoconservatism]] #### 8. MAGA Populism / Bannonism **The mass-movement layer.** Steve Bannon's contribution was translating elite New Right ideology into populist fuel — "deconstruction of the administrative state" is Yarvin's [[The Cathedral]] critique in blue-collar language. The War Room podcast, the "movement" infrastructure, the deployment of culture-war narratives at scale. **Key figures:** [[Steve Bannon]], [[Stephen Miller]], [[Jack Posobiec]], [[Darren Beattie]], [[Kash Patel]] **Institutional home:** War Room podcast, Breitbart (legacy), Revolver News ([[Darren Beattie]]), National Pulse **See:** [[Steve Bannon]], [[Media Ecosystem]] --- ### Ring 3: Adjacent Pipelines & On-Ramps These movements aren't strictly "New Right" but function as radicalization pipelines that feed people into the core factions. #### 9. Intellectual Dark Web (IDW) **The "just asking questions" gateway.** Originally positioned as heterodox centrists challenging progressive orthodoxy on free speech, gender, and race. In practice, it functioned as a respectability bridge from mainstream liberalism to the New Right — you start listening to Sam Harris debate religion, and three algorithmic hops later you're watching Curtis Yarvin explain why democracy is fake. **Key figures:** [[Jordan Peterson]], [[Ben Shapiro]], [[Dave Rubin]], Sam Harris (later departed), Bret Weinstein, Heather Heying, Joe Rogan (adjacent) **Status:** Largely dissolved as a coherent brand by 2022, but its alumni scattered across the New Right ecosystem. Peterson → NatCon orbit. Shapiro → mainstream-right gatekeeper. Rubin → direct MAGA. Weinstein → conspiracy/anti-vax. **See:** [[Intellectual Dark Web]] #### 10. The Manosphere / [[Red Pill]] Pipeline **The gender-grievance on-ramp.** A network of male-focused online communities built around anti-feminism, "men's rights," pickup artistry, and eventually explicit misogyny. "Taking the red pill" (from *The Matrix*) means accepting that society is rigged against men by feminism. Functions as a massive on-ramp to the broader New Right because it reaches young men through dating/relationship content before introducing political ideology. **Key figures:** [[Andrew Tate]], [[Rollo Tomassi]], Return of Kings ([[Roosh V]], who later pivoted to [[Orthodox Christianity]]), [[Alex Kaschuta]] (bridges manosphere ↔ post-liberal right) **Institutional home:** [[YouTube]], podcasts, Twitter/X, Telegram. Overlaps with vitalist/BAP aesthetic. **See:** [[Manosphere]] #### 11. TESCREAL / Tech-Right **The Silicon Valley ideology stack.** [[Transhumanism]], [[Extropianism]], [[Singularitarianism]], Cosmism, [[Rationalism]], [[Effective Altruism]], [[Longtermism]] — the ideological bundle that justifies tech oligarchy as civilizational necessity. Not all TESCREAL adherents are New Right, but the framework provides the philosophical scaffolding for why tech elites should govern: only they can navigate existential risk, only they can secure humanity's cosmic future, therefore democracy is a dangerous luxury. **Key figures:** [[Peter Thiel]], [[Elon Musk]], [[Marc Andreessen]], [[Balaji Srinivasan]], [[Eliezer Yudkowsky]], [[Nick Bostrom]] **Institutional home:** a16z, Founders Fund, [[MIRI]], [[LessWrong]], Rationalist community **See:** [[TESCREAL]], [[Effective Accelerationism]], [[Techno-Optimist Manifesto]] #### 12. Christian Nationalism **The mass-base theology.** Not the same as Catholic integralism (which is elite and intellectual). [[Christian Nationalism]] is the populist conviction that America was founded as a Christian nation and should be governed as one. Overlaps with the [[Christian Network State]] project (which is the *organized*, venture-funded version) and the [[Crusader Complex]] (the militarized version). **Key figures:** [[Pete Hegseth]], [[Charlie Kirk]] (TPUSA → Faith), [[David Barton]], [[Robert Jeffress]], [[Andrew Isker]], [[Douglas Wilson]] **Institutional home:** Turning Point Faith, [[WallBuilders]], [[CREC]], [[Rockbridge Network]], [[Nate Fischer]]'s [[New Founding]] **See:** [[Christian Network State]], [[Crusader Complex]], [[Christian Reconstructionism]] --- ### Ring 4: Media, Culture & Funding Infrastructure The connective tissue that holds the ecosystem together. #### Media Ecosystem | Layer | Outlets | Function | |-------|---------|----------| | Legacy right media | [[Fox News]], [[Newsmax]], [[One America News Network]] | Mass audience, Overton window maintenance | | New Right media | [[The Daily Wire]], [[The Babylon Bee]], [[Blaze TV]] | Conservative alternative media at scale | | Dissident right media | [[Taki's Magazine]], [[American Renaissance]], VDare, Counter-Currents | Openly ethno-nationalist content | | Movement media | Revolver News, War Room, National Pulse, The Federalist | MAGA operational messaging | | Podcast/influencer layer | [[All-In Podcast]], [[Joe Rogan]], [[Tim Pool]], [[Tucker Carlson]] (show), [[Megyn Kelly]] | Mass reach + algorithmic amplification | | Platform layer | [[Rumble]], [[Truth Social]], Gab, Gettr, Cozy.tv | Alternative platforms for deplatformed voices | | Intellectual journals | American Affairs, Compact, First Things, Claremont Review of Books, American Mind | Idea laundering: academic credibility for New Right positions | | Substack/anon layer | Various anon and pseudonymous writers | BAP-osphere, vitalist aesthetics, NRx theory | #### Funding Networks The dark money infrastructure that makes the ecosystem possible: - **[[Thiel Network]]:** [[Peter Thiel]] → [[Founders Fund]], [[Thiel Fellowship]], direct political donations (Vance, Masters), Edmund Burke Foundation, American Affairs, Claremont Institute - **Mercer Network:** [[Robert Mercer]] / [[Rebekah Mercer]] → Breitbart, [[Cambridge Analytica]] (defunct), [[Parler]], various PACs - **Koch Network (partial):** [[Koch Network]] → traditionally libertarian, now partially aligned via [[Americans for Prosperity]], Cato (in tension with NatCons) - **Leonard Leo / Federalist Network:** [[Leonard Leo]] → [[Federalist Society]], [[Concord Fund]], [[DonorsTrust]], CRC Advisors — the judicial arm - **Rockbridge / New Founding:** [[Nate Fischer]], [[Rockbridge Network]] → [[Christian Network State]] infrastructure, venture-funded parallel institutions - **Heritage / [[Project 2025]]:** [[Heritage Foundation]] → institutional capture of the federal bureaucracy - **Bradley Foundation:** [[Bradley Foundation]] → $800M+ endowment funding Heritage, [[Manhattan Institute]], Claremont, Federalist Society → See [[Dark Money Ecosystem]] for the full map --- ## How the Factions Connect The New Right's power comes from its ability to function as a *network* rather than a hierarchy. Key structural dynamics: ### Shared Personnel, Different Hats [[Peter Thiel]] funds NRx (Yarvin's Urbit), NatCon (Edmund Burke Foundation keynotes), Catholic post-liberalism (Vance's conversion), and defense tech ([[Palantir]], [[Anduril]]). [[JD Vance]] is simultaneously a Thiel protégé, a Yarvin "friend," a Catholic convert in the Deneen orbit, and a NatCon headliner. The same people circulate through multiple factions, cross-pollinating ideas. ### Idea Laundering Pipeline Ideas move from extreme to mainstream through a predictable pipeline: ``` Fringe theory (NRx blogs, /pol/, BAP-osphere) → Dissident right media (American Renaissance, VDare) → Intellectual journals (American Affairs, Compact, Claremont Review) → NatCon conferences and policy papers → Mainstream conservative media (Fox, Daily Wire) → Republican policy (executive orders, legislation) ``` **Example:** Yarvin's RAGE → Heritage's Project 2025 [[Schedule F]] recommendations → Trump's executive orders firing federal employees → DOGE. ### The Tension Map Not all factions get along: | Tension | Between | Over | |---------|---------|------| | Religion vs. secularism | Catholic integralists ↔ NRx/tech-right | Whether the future is theocratic or technocratic | | Race | Groypers/alt-right ↔ NatCons | NatCons need to maintain plausible deniability on white nationalism | | Economics | Paleocons/NatCons ↔ Tech libertarians | Industrial policy vs. free markets | | Israel | Groypers (antisemitic) ↔ NatCons ([[Yoram Hazony]] is Israeli) | Fundamental incompatibility papered over | | Democracy | Claremonters (save the Constitution) ↔ NRx (abolish it) | Whether American founding principles are worth preserving | | Aesthetics | Vitalists/BAP ↔ Catholic post-liberals | Pagan aesthetics vs. Christian order | --- ## Key People (Cross-Faction) ### The Connectors (active in 3+ factions) - [[Peter Thiel]] — NRx funder + NatCon patron + defense tech + Catholic convert influence - [[JD Vance]] — Thiel protégé + Yarvin associate + Catholic convert + NatCon headliner + VP - [[Steve Bannon]] — Populist translator + movement builder + international NatCon networker - [[Tucker Carlson]] — Mass audience + NatCon headliner + Groyper-adjacent (Fuentes interview) + vitalist vibes - [[Curtis Yarvin]] — NRx founder + Claremont-adjacent + Thiel network + DOGE intellectual godfather ### By Faction See individual faction pages for complete rosters. --- ## What's Missing from This Map Areas that need deeper investigation: 1. **International New Right networks** — The connections between American NatCons and European movements ([[Viktor Orbán]], [[Giorgia Meloni]], Matteo Salvini, AfD, Vox, PiS). The Edmund Burke Foundation explicitly operates transatlantically. 2. **The recruitment funnel in detail** — How do young men go from Joe Rogan → Jordan Peterson → BAP → Fuentes? What are the specific algorithmic and social pathways? 3. **The legal infrastructure** — How the Federalist Society pipeline and Leonard Leo's network interact with New Right ideology (they're the *operational* arm that translates ideas into judicial appointments). 4. **Crypto/Web3 connections** — The overlap between crypto-libertarianism, network state ideology, and New Right exit politics. 5. **The pronatalist/fertility politics connection** — How demographic anxiety connects vitalists, Christian nationalists, and NRx thinkers around a shared obsession with birth rates. --- ## See Also ### Factions & Ideologies - [[Dark Enlightenment]] - [[National Conservatism]] - [[Catholic Post-Liberalism]] - [[Paleoconservatism]] - [[Groyper Movement]] - [[Intellectual Dark Web]] - [[Manosphere]] - [[Vitalism (New Right)]] - [[Christian Network State]] - [[Crusader Complex]] - [[Race Realism]] - [[TESCREAL]] - [[Effective Accelerationism]] - [[Techno-Optimist Manifesto]] ### Infrastructure - [[Defense Tech Ecosystem]] - [[Dark Money Ecosystem]] - [[Think Tank Ecosystem]] - [[Media Ecosystem]] - [[Claremont Institute]] - [[Heritage Foundation]] - [[Edmund Burke Foundation]] - [[Federalist Society]] - [[Rockbridge Network]] ### Key People - [[Peter Thiel]] - [[Curtis Yarvin]] - [[JD Vance]] - [[Steve Bannon]] - [[Patrick Deneen]] - [[Yoram Hazony]] - [[Bronze Age Pervert]] - [[Nick Fuentes]] - [[Tucker Carlson]] - [[Michael Anton]] - [[Christopher Rufo]]