I just did a post on how National Geographic's 2024 "Traveler of the Year" is a drag queen. What are the odds?
A lot of people in the comments remembered National Geographic from their childhoods, and how it used to take them to exotic places. I got the same feeling from writer Sohrab Ahmari, who attended a discussion of "Gone With the Wind" in New York City and reported back on what he saw.
On Super Bowl Sunday, NYC’s “dissident right” scene converged on an Upper East Side mansion to celebrate Gone With the Wind: as a fashion inspiration, feminist bible, and repository of edgy racial vibes they wouldn’t put into words.
— Sohrab Ahmari (@SohrabAhmari) February 14, 2024
Here's what I saw.https://t.co/QjzpBYkcLc
"The Weird Radical Right Plays Dress-Up." In which ways are they radical? Do they riot? Do they glue themselves to artwork and sit down in the middle of the road? And how did Ahmari manage to infiltrate this group?
It was an honest discussion on Gone With The Wind. The speaker Jack Mason devoted hours of his podcast to the book and film and his appreciation of it. Are you saying that no one should ever speak of this American masterpiece without outright condemning it because to do so…
— Pericles 'Perry' Abbasi (@ElectionLegal) February 14, 2024
It was an honest discussion on Gone With The Wind. The speaker Jack Mason devoted hours of his podcast to the book and film and his appreciation of it. Are you saying that no one should ever speak of this American masterpiece without outright condemning it because to do so inherently brings "edgy racial vibes"?
He couldn't find anything racist, so instead he relied on picking up edgy racial vibes from New York City's "dissident right."
These fish-out-of-water accounts are always hilarious. Some liberal journalist attends a conservative event, finds it completely normal, and then finds a way to make it sound dangerous.
Couldn't imagine a more boring read.
— Under Cupboards (@UnderCupboards) February 14, 2024
All right, we'll click to get a glimpse of what Ahmari witnessed in his pith helmet and safari gear.
Most normal New Yorkers settled down with beer and wings to watch the Super Bowl on Sunday night. But the city’s “dissident right” scene converged on an Upper East Side mansion across from Central Park to celebrate Gone With the Wind: as a fashion inspiration, feminist bible, and repository of edgy racial vibes they wouldn’t or couldn’t quite put into words.
At “Salon 001: Tomorrow Is Another Day,” models and e-girls and downtown podcasters abounded (the event was pegged to New York Fashion Week), the dim lighting flattered nearly everyone, and the drinks and apps were downright opulent. Even so, you didn’t have to squint hard to see something not all that different from a fandom convention for people interested in IQ hereditarianism, rather than the Marvel Universe or the Fallout franchise.
Oh darn, the rest of it is behind a paywall. Well, at least we learned the lighting was dim and there were drinks and appetizers.
How about the way he starts out: "Most normal New Yorkers." We didn't get to the part about the edgy racial vibes that the group — and Ahmari — couldn't quite put into words.
I guess "Gone With the Wind" — the book and movie — have been canceled, even though Hattie McDaniel became the first African American to win an Oscar.
I don't picture "normal New Yorkers" (rich, white progressives) sitting down with a beer and watching the Super Bowl … it sounds like something rural conservatives would do.
Are there normal New Yorkers?
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