Bright Young Things 2.0

 The New York Young Republicans were back this week for another edition of their annual gala—an event where a bunch of far-right YouTube influencers gab about destroying democracy while wearing tuxedoes and fancy gowns. The aesthetic aspect of this event continues to fascinate me. It just so completely fulfills someone's worst possible conception of moral nihilism in the social media age. Here are a number of rich young New York socialites, after all, playing at apocalypse, and tossing off half-serious overtures to fascism, all while clad in black-tie. Patrick Bateman could hardly do worse. 

The New York Times coverage of the event captures the ambience perfectly. Steve Bannon, wearing his trademark quasi-militia gear, shrieks about retribution. We will show the enemies of MAGA "no mercy," Bannon roared. (Beneath the huffing and blowing, there are signs of a deep insecurity and fear on Bannon's part: what if, he appears to dread, Trump actually moderates on some of his extreme rhetoric once he retakes office? Trump, after all, appears to be trying to give himself leeway to backpedal on "mass deportation" right now—raising alarm among his far-right supporters.)

Fresh-faced Gen Z influencers, meanwhile, half-ironically flirt with the idea of "throwing the book at" "leftist elites." Which leftist elites?, the journalist asks. The 22-year-old MAGA influencer cites Mitch McConnell as an example. Mitch McConnell! Is this a joke? We don't know. As the article points out—maybe the kids making these remarks don't know either. They are play-acting fascism in fancy dress. They have to sense on some level that they are wearing clown shoes. But maybe, in the age of social media, the distinction between earnestness and irony has just entirely broken down. 

The Times article notes: "That’s often how it goes with this crowd of Trump true believers. Like the man himself, they say outrageous things, and nobody knows how seriously to take them. They often don’t even seem to know how seriously to take themselves."

I've quoted the poem before in this regard, but I'm going to have to quote it again, because it is just too relevant. When D.H. Lawrence wrote about the "Bright Young Things" of his era—with their similar mixture of half-ironic braggadocio, moral nihilism, and sham pretense of insouciance in the face of the total breakdown of social order, which they appear to invite—he might as well be speaking about the New York Young Republicans. Or, for that matter, about their left-wing mirror image: the young nihilists on social media right now who are applauding the murder of a healthcare executive.

The worst of the younger generation, Lawrence wrote, those Latter-Day Sinners, is that they calmly assert: We only thrill to perversity, murder, suicide, rape—

bragging a little, really,
and at the same time expect to go on calmly eating good dinners for the next fifty years. 

Yes, that's it. That's what's really so repulsive about this spectacle. It's not only that these Bright Young Things think that can tamper with the forces of fascism and mayhem and assassination—it's that they also think they can do so without any of it coming back upon themselves. They think they can play around half-ironically with hatred and violence, with perfect impunity. They think they can let loose the "deluge," as Lawrence puts it—the forces of "nihil"—without either coming home to roost. But "perhaps, my dears," Lawrence concluded, "nihil will come along and hit you on the head."