Vibe Shift

by Jay Lantis

Jay Lantis argues that Trump’s second rise to power, driven by a youth rebellion against the disillusioning failures of neoliberalism and hyper-progressivism, signals the cultural resurgence of the American right, with ripple effects poised to empower Europe’s own fight for sovereignty and identity.

The tipping point has been reached. The tides of battle have turned. The election of Donald Trump as the 47th President of the United States is, of course, a victory for all enemies of the neoliberal globalist regime, but this (his second ascension) is of greater significance than his first. In 2016, Donald Trump was a flailing conservative spasm to halt the momentum of the left. Now, he builds his own inertia. He is “conserving” nothing. How could he, when the left was at the peak of their ascension just before his return to office? The pendulum had reached its furthest leftward point. Now, under his power, it begins to swing the other way. This new undercurrent, a harbinger of the Western world to come, is the vital energy of the youth.

The United States was molded out of perpetual rebellion. A refuge for the unorthodox of faith, seeking shelter from the crown. A society of adventurers and fortune seekers. A people spiritually, perhaps even genetically, united by an uncontrolled urge to shake off the conventions of the past. First, rebellion against monarchy. Then, one by one, rebellion against the traditions and cultural norms of the Old World. Youth are drawn to rebellion like flies to honey. To put it plainly, rebellion is fun. It is vital. Energetic. There is an intoxicating allure to being the vanguard of a new era, to living on the fringe, to tearing down the old and rebuilding the new. There is gravity to rebellion. As it shudders forth, it picks up speed; the bored, disaffected, and discontent are pulled into its wake. Rebellion is self-accelerating, as its leaders compete to stand furthest out on the cliff of progress and dare to look down. There is a kind of thrilling valor in extremity, and those that grasp it are met with admiration — the architects of utopia.

The youth, most prone to harboring a rebellious spirit, are also least capable of seeing the broad picture of history. Change is pushed forth for its own sake, with little thought or understanding of what that change will entail or why old structures deserve replacement. Progress is a blind virtue. A quote from G. K. Chesterton illustrates this well:

There exists in such a case a certain institution or law; let us say, for the sake of simplicity, a fence or gate erected across a road. The more modern type of reformer goes gaily up to it and says, ‘I don’t see the use of this; let us clear it away.’ To which the more intelligent type of reformer will do well to answer: ‘If you don’t see the use of it, I certainly won’t let you clear it away. Go away and think. Then, when you can come back and tell me that you do see the use of it, I may allow you to destroy it.

We can swap “modern” with “young” and Chesterson’s quote remains true. It is not the thoughtful who lead the charge of progress, but the modern — thus “progress” is divorced from morality. At a certain point, leftward “progress” was always going to run up against the limitations of human nature. At some point, the fences are not made of wood, but stone, and attempting to break them elicits only revulsion. The young men and women of America look back at the beautiful society their ancestors built, smashed to ruins behind them. They watch as their supposed “rebel vanguard” scolds them from every position of authority, be it school, university, or mainstream news. They watch the most extreme among them cry out for changes so absurd and contradictory that they sound surreal. “Put men in women’s sports!” “Put men in women’s prisons!” “Mutilate the youth!” “Venerate the incompetent!” They take stock of their own lives, isolated, consumption-obsessed, whipped around by hyperproductive faceless corporations and a government that has all but abandoned them. They begin to wonder what the point of all this “progress” was to begin with. A sinking feeling sets in.

But that rebel spirit lives on.

And as the youth of America glance backwards, they notice that the left has built new fences behind them.

America was the nation that globalized the world. Economic dominance has given us, for better or for worse, an outsized influence on culture. Progress gave the United States the world as a plaything, and it dragged the Eurosphere down with it. A foreign policy that fosters financial dependence and then vomits multicultural atomization down the throats of its vassals. America was not content to bash down its own fences, the inertia of revolt was too infectious and too irresistible. A weary post-war Europe permitted itself to be flattened by the tide of America-led globalist materialism. Gradually, in a process I can only imagine is agonizing for those who live outside our borders, the world has been molded into our image, every European nation a little vassal state. “This America has the Eiffel Tower. This America has Big Ben. This one here was on the wrong side of the War, but they’re all better now. We fixed them, see? They have McDonald’s!”

There have been reactions in Europe against Americanization since the process began, but the soft invasion of American NGO networks, government aid, and media dominance always stopped them in their tracks. Now, America itself is beginning to turn. The youth vote swing towards Trump this election cycle was dramatic enough to throw the opposition into a panic. The “vibe shift,” as they have taken to calling it, is tangible. And like everything else America has done, the ripple effects are beginning to send shockwaves across Europe. Elon Musk openly endorsing the AfD. Meloni attending Trump’s inauguration. American youth rejecting the materialist ambitions of their elders, gaining a new appreciation for their European cultural heritage. A growing trend of young Americans converting to Catholicism or developing interests in pagan and Norse religion. On newly uncensored Twitter, more and more are interacting with the European Right. For the first time, young Americans are mourning what was lost alongside their European brothers and sisters, sharing messages of support for their struggles against globalism.

It is hard to overstate the significance of this. For the first time in her history, the American right is culturally ascendant. The left, and the tentacles of neo-liberalism they spread throughout the West, are passé and on the decline. Discontent is spreading quickly. America sees what it turned into, and what it turned the world into, and has become dissatisfied. The “rebellion” has turned its eye in the opposite direction and begun to pick up steam. Youth who propelled Trump to power will grow up to become the leaders of a New America. And as America builds itself into something new, we can hope and predict that it will use its leftover influence to stand behind European nations who are doing the same.