The Normie Problem
Yesterday’s post about saving the West by making better art gave rise to a great deal of comment. Many of the reactions from readers cited a recent video by author David V. Stewart on the role of normies in pop culture.
You can watch it here:
For context, my post revisited how every Western institution responsible for producing pop culture was once run by what we would now call Conservatives. But due to a long march that started a hundred years ago, the now-dominant Death Cult gained control of every consumer media distribution channel. Believing that all art is political, the ruling Cult replaced entertainment with propaganda, driving the West’s decline.
And since capturing the organs of cultural production and warping them to churn out agitprop was a key factor in the downfall of the West, it stands to reason that recapturing the institutions and making good, honest art again are essential to restoring Western culture.
Related: To Save the West, Make Better Art
But some readers pushed back against that premise. Here’s a representative comment from reader Rudolph Harrier:
Going off the theme in David Stewart's recent videos, there's basically two obstacles to art penetrating the mainstream:
1.) The type of art. You might get normies to read stuff like the Dresden Files or Larry Correia's Monster Hunter International books, but they're never going to read The Book of the New Sun. The furthest that they will go is to read a tricky tie-in to a megapopular franchise (think The Silmarillion, but even that's pushing it.) Not really anything you can do here; if you are making a normie-intimidating genre then you aren't getting mainstream appeal. It's worth doing things like that, but you have to know that's what you're getting into.
2.) The availability of the art. You can have the most normie-friendly book ever written; but if it's not in stores and not available on Amazon it won't matter. Similarly if your TV show or movie isn't in theaters or on streaming services like Netflix or Hulu, it may as well not exist when it comes to mainstream impact. The only real exception to that I can think of is The Chosen, since it got fairly popular before being in theaters or on mainstream services. But it also streamed for free during 2020, meaning that it was at the peak of streaming demand. Not something you can really replicate, and its continuing success definitely is only possible due to using mainstream services.
Moneyman can't help at all with issue 1, but they certainly can help with issue 2. First by getting series onto mainstream services. In the long run they can make their own services and distribution routes that they expect to be unsuccessful, but which houses each new endeavor in addition to the mainstream options. Once you have enough hit shows of your own, you can leverage that to take the spot of the mainstream service (just like Disney is attempting to do right now.)
But of course when they say they want conservative art, they do not mean anything long term and substantial, but rather a conservative branded cash in that can make them a few bucks from suckers now.
Related: Did Normies Ruin Comics?
My reply:
Lots of people watched David's video, which is good to see. He nicely unpacked the consequences of Conservatives letting the Death Cult take over all mainstream distribution channels.
But, the accurate observation that normies account for the vast majority of mainstream sales doesn't necessarily lead to the conclusion that newpub must appeal to them. Because David's other correct observation that normies seek convenience over quality and consume what the dominant distributors put in front of them contradicts that approach.
Normies don't dictate pop culture; the corporations that control the major distribution networks do. So yes, winning back cultural dominance does mean unseating the current distro gatekeepers and replacing them with our guys.
But, there's an erroneous conflation happening of "cultural dominance" with "success". Because while capturing the normie market is the metric for winning the culture, it's no longer necessary for monetary success in the arts--as long as you define success as "making a living."
That's what I've been saying for years, and the numbers keep backing me up. Using myself as a data point, I've been earning a sustainable income through newpub for nine years now. As are countless indie authors. Last I saw, newpub writers have been out-earning oldpub writers for years.
Taken together, what all of these developments do is vindicate neopatronage. For those who are still skeptical, note that David has effectively replaced normies with Kickstarter backers as his big mouth, maintained Amazon as his long tail, and built out a Patreon to cover the middle.
Tl; dr: If your definition of success is becoming a household name millionaire with a movie deal, you're not gonna get it until billionaires who align with us retake Hollywood. But if your vision of success is living comfortably in a quiet cul-de-sac nest door to an architect and a plumber, the numbers show that outcome is attainable.
Retaking the culture and individual financial success are two separate issues. Yes, normies consume what the major distributors put in front of them. That means we don't regain mass culture until a billionaire or two aligned with our thinking takes over Hollywood.
As for eraning a living in the arts, neopatronage keeps marching from victory to victory, as David's aforementioned Kickstarter campaign demonstrates.
Related: Pledge King Leper
In the final analysis, normies really aren't worth fretting over. There are ways to reach them if you want to for your own enrichment. And once we take back the institutions, which we have to anyway, the normie problem will take care of itself.
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