Tom Wolfe, the celebrated author of The Right Stuff and The Bonfire of the Vanities, famously skewered New York’s cultural elite in his 1970 essay “Radical Chic.” He brilliantly satirized a high-society dinner party where wealthy Manhattanites, dressed in their finest, toasted their own virtue while feigning solidarity with the Black Panthers.
The posturing that Wolfe’s original critique targeted has since devolved into something far more chilling: a modern cynical flirtation with violence and extremism, best described as terrorism chic.
Mind you, our cultural elite don’t do the actual terrorism. They leave the dirty work to their more fervent devotees, like the assassin of Charlie Kirk and the killer of the schoolchildren praying in a Catholic church in Minneapolis.
Today’s cultural elite wield their influence not by reasoned debate, but through a constant drumbeat labeling political opponents as Nazis, extremists, and dictators. In this rhetorical war, even a benign phrase like “Make America Great Again” is weaponized, its four words recast as a slur expressing fascist ideology. This relentless vilification is a calculated effort to inflame passions and obliterate common ground.
One of the casing from Charlie Kirk’s killer reportedly bore the inscription “Hey fascist, CATCH!” The alleged assassin, Tyler Robinson, was likely convinced he was a hero, extinguishing a “hater” and striking a blow for justice. The profound irony is lost on both him and the cultural forces that shaped his belief: In silencing a public debater and vocal proponent of free speech with a bullet, they adopted the playbook they claim to despise. In this brutal act, the ultimate tool of fascism was used to eliminate a voice they could not defeat rationally.
Nor is Charlie Kirk the only victim. How many impressionable adolescents’ lives have been ruined by being taught gender nonsense and queer ideology? Throw in all the innocent people harmed by terrorism chic in other ways, such as homicide victims from the open border push from our cultural elite or by their patrons, blue municipalities, who have a revolving door for violent criminal offenders. When you add it up, the body count is staggering, with no end in sight.
America’s cultural landscape is under the sway of the left, with terrorism chic at the top of the social hierarchy. Yet a look at the political scoreboard tells a different story. An analysis of the last ten presidential elections reveals a nearly perfect split, a dead heat between Republican and Democrat victories. Winning elections is great, but winning the culture is better.
Where doesn’t terrorism chic own the day? From primary education, to academia, the arts, media, the internet, technology, science, the list is endless of where they own the culture. If we are to have any hope of a sane, free, workable republic, winning back the culture and building it back up brick by brick is our only hope. The question is how best to do this? The answer is for us on the right to articulate our beliefs well, lead by example, stand firm for what we believe in, and engage thoughtfully and respectfully with our fellow citizenry, winning hearts and minds.
That is what Charlie Kirk did, and his punishment was to be taken out by a bullet at age 31. Let’s pray that others as skilled as Kirk pick up his banner and run with it.
Matthew Karl is a pseudonym.
Image via Pexels.