No, Charlie Kirk Can’t Be Replaced
Hollyhand pretty much wants to fill Kirk’s shoes and become as popular an influencer on the right.
By John Loftus and Dylan Housman
Welcome back to Mr. Right, a newsletter about navigating modern manhood for normal guys in a not-normal world. Happy Halloween! This week, we discuss why there will never be another Charlie Kirk, the importance of finding healthy, productive subcultures, and why no one wants to be the second choice in a romantic relationship.
Enjoying this newsletter? Share it with your friends and family! It helps keep the lights on and Mr. Right employed. We can’t do it without you.
To celebrate Halloween, the Daily Caller is offering 25% off all merch featuring a brand new limited edition shirt.
Use code HALLOWEEN25 at checkout and show others where you stand.
No, Charlie Kirk Can’t Be Replaced
This week, The New York Times profiled a young conservative influencer by the very Southern name of Brilyn Hollyhand.
Hollyhand pretty much wants to fill Kirk’s shoes and become as popular an influencer on the right. However, his political pitch, to borrow from The Times, is “Kirk-lite.” In other words, there seems to be less emphasis on rigorous intellectual debate and more on friendly conversations. Hollyhand simply doesn’t have those fierce debate skills or intellectual curiosity that made Kirk formidable. (Charlie Kirk’s Best Life Decision: Marrying Erika)
Hollyhand’s heart is in the right place, and he doesn’t seem like a bad person. But I don’t think he will inspire young conservatives. He comes off as fake and scripted, and when young people get the sense that you are mindlessly repeating talking points, they will mock you before running for the hills. And, again, he lacks Kirk’s razor-sharp mind.
In some ways, the right’s futile search for Charlie Kirk 2.0 is similar to the Democrats’ desperate quest to find “the left’s Joe Rogan.” Like Kirk, Rogan is inimitable and became popular because he acted like himself, spoke his mind, and didn’t care what other people thought of him. Rogan is authentic and intellectually curious, as was Kirk. You simply can’t replace that.
And this is a good segue to far-right influencer Nick Fuentes, whose recent interview with Tucker Carlson went viral. Fuentes seems to be another right-wing influencer jockeying for a slice of Kirk’s audience.
Fuentes already has a large following of young men, known as “Groypers.” To sum them up as bluntly and succinctly as possible, they are a bunch of white nationalist edgelords who are angry because they can’t get laid or find a wife. (The Real Young Republican Scandal That Everyone Is Overlooking)
I’m not here to litigate Fuentes, as plenty of conservatives have done that already. Personally, I don’t like him and find him and his movement weird and off-putting. It’s a free country, though, and he has the right to speak his mind.
But I think young men should avoid, at all costs, getting sucked into the Fuentes/Groyper subculture.
There are so many subcultures under the sun, online and in real life, that men can discover. The subculture of people who geek out on baseball statistics; the subculture of antique gun enthusiasts; the subculture of readers who love obscure French novels. It is endless. You can cultivate your own garden of hobbies and intellectual pursuits, focusing your energy on learning new things or skills.
So, why waste your precious time hanging out in an online subculture of schmendricks? How does that benefit you in the long run? How does that make you a better man?
He Has A Point: No One Wants To Be Second Choice
This week’s He Has A Point goes to a collective thread of replies to a video of a mega-star athlete being told by his girlfriend that she was actually in love with his best friend before they started dating.
In the video, Erling Haaland’s girlfriend, Isabel Haugseng, admits that she was initially attracted to his best friend, and then later changed her mind when she met him.
(For those of you who are not familiar with Haaland, he is an extremely successful and talented Norwegian soccer player and one of the most famous athletes on the globe.)
His reaction says it all. He looks confused. Shocked. You can feel the red-hot anger simmering beneath the surface. Even this man, a world-class athlete with generational wealth, is floored by his girlfriend’s admission.
She even says she knows he doesn’t think it’s “fun” to talk about it, but she does.
Well, of course, he doesn’t. No one, not even someone of Haaland’s stature, wants to feel like they are the second choice. She nearly admitted that she doesn’t really find him naturally attractive, but wanted him for his money and fame.
There are a couple of lessons here. All men, no matter how rich or famous or confident, can feel the sting of rejection; the sting of being second choice. Women and men should take these sorts of feelings to their graves. And men shouldn’t marry a woman who casually admits something like this.
As other X users said, Haaland should dump her immediately. They have a point.
Thank you for reading this week’s newsletter. If you’d like to drop a note or have your question answered next week, email us: mrright@dailycaller.com
Like what you’re reading? If so, please consider subscribing to State of the Day or sharing this with a friend. You’d be supporting this newsletter and help keep independent journalism alive.
Mr. Right is on Twitter! Stay connected for even more based takes, commentary and daily updates.