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Joshua Tait

@joshuatait.bsky.social
753 followers 186 following 599 posts

Ph.D in US history from UNC | Associate Editor at The Bulwark | Writes about the history of conservatism and conservative thought | Irenic | joshua.a.tait at gmail dot com | joshuatait.substack.com

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Reposted by Joshua Tait
The Bulwark @thebulwark.com · 29/09/2026
"It’s possible Vance really is very shallow. Or perhaps he really is amoral. Or maybe he believes it all. It’s hard to know which option is worse."
lnk.thebulwark.com
The Man Who Would Inherit MAGA
JD Vance has spent years sucking up to the “five families” of the New Right. But does the vice president actually believe anything?
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Joshua Tait @joshuatait.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
Amazing art for today's Morning Shots newsletter by the terrific Sarah Rogers.
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Reposted by Joshua Tait
Adam Keiper @adamkeiper.com · 30/09/2026
Smart piece by @joshuatait.bsky.social pointing out something I haven't seen anybody else notice: Vance has positioned himself as the key post-Trump figure among each of what we might think of as the "five families" of MAGA.👇
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Joshua Tait @joshuatait.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Vance once appeared to be a beacon of a reform-oriented center right. Since then he has systematically rebuilt himself into the dream candidate of the five families of the MAGA New Right. Should he become president, he'll be the most ideological ever. www.thebulwark.com/p/jd-vance-m...
thebulwark.com
The Man Who Would Inherit MAGA
JD Vance has spent years sucking up to the “five families” of the New Right. But does the vice president actually believe anything?
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Joshua Tait @joshuatait.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
Many years ago, when millennials treated the Harry Potter books with a weirdly religious reverence, people used to say, “Read another book.” The freakout about Greta Gerwig’s casting of Meryl Streep as the voice of the still-a-male-lion Aslan in the upcoming Narnia adaptation... 🧵
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Joshua Tait @joshuatait.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
Right-wing anti-immigration panics aren't new.
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Joshua Tait @joshuatait.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
Do you ever feel sorry for the historical John Birch or Virginia Dare?
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Joshua Tait @joshuatait.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
Trumpism must to be repudiated root and branch. It starts with the impeachment of figures who were obviously malignant from the start. www.thebulwark.com/p/impeach-th...
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Joshua Tait @joshuatait.bsky.social · 13/09/2026
Due to the nature of conservatism (opposed to social change, collapse of orders) and the way social mores do change over time, it’s inevitable that a certain number of conservatives will become totally despairing about society. The paleocon archetype is inevitable.
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Reposted by Joshua Tait
"le mec à McCabe là", un truc comme ça @socfrimphmcc.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
A lire pour connaître l'histoire totalement méconnue en France du carlisme étatsunien, mouvement catholique, autoritaire, intégriste, hispanophile, dont est issue une partie du mouvement "pro-vie"
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Joshua Tait @joshuatait.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
This is on my mind again. In part because I frequently walk past the some of the sites recounted here, because I read an a riveting new memoir by a Traditionalist Catholic, and because of the continual resonances of a political movement thought to be dead. joshuatait.substack.com/p/stitching-...
joshuatait.substack.com
“Stitching Banners to an Exiled King”
Triumph, Radical Traditionalism, and the Temptation of Despair
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Reposted by Joshua Tait
Adam Keiper @adamkeiper.com · 07/05/2025
Guy's gonna keep trying to rename bodies of water until he feels he's sufficiently softened us up to get away with changing Lake Superior to Lake Trump. apnews.com/article/trum...
apnews.com
Trump plans to announce the US will call the Persian Gulf the Arabian Gulf, officials tell AP
President Donald Trump plans to announce next week that the U.S. will refer to the Persian Gulf as the Arabian Gulf or the Gulf of Arabia.
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Joshua Tait @joshuatait.bsky.social · 22/08/2026
"Revealed preferences" or, as I like to call them, original sin.
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Reposted by Joshua Tait
Michael DeMoor @michaeldemoor.bsky.social · 21/08/2026
This post did not get the love it deserved. Shame on you all.
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Joshua Tait @joshuatait.bsky.social · 21/08/2026
Put on California Dreamin' and enjoy this stupendous review. www.thebulwark.com/p/the-end-of...
thebulwark.com
End of the Endless Summer
The Eve Babitz revival offered an intoxicating escape from our modern literary anxieties. Her final, briefly wonderful book of letters brings us back down to earth.
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Joshua Tait @joshuatait.bsky.social · 21/08/2026
I am here for Straussian readings of the Census voter report.
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Joshua Tait @joshuatait.bsky.social · 15/08/2026
National Review on Kevin Phillips, 1978 / The Argument on JD Vance 2026. Plus ça change!
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Joshua Tait @joshuatait.bsky.social · 12/08/2026
As soon as I heard about the border crossing at Ceuta, I knew we were in for Camp of the Saints discourse. And sure enough, here's Juliette Heinzlef on the one novel everyone on the anti-immigrant right claims to have read. www.thebulwark.com/p/the-dystop...
thebulwark.com
The Dystopian Novel Fueling the Far Right’s Migration Myths
From Ceuta to Washington, hard-right leaders regularly cite Jean Raspail’s 1973 novel to transform real-world border events into apocalyptic threats to Western civilization.
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Joshua Tait @joshuatait.bsky.social · 05/08/2026
The easiest political pitch in the world right now is probably: “everything is too expensive, Trump is ripping us off, we gotta hold him accountable, Happy Thanksgiving and Merry Christmas.”
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Joshua Tait @joshuatait.bsky.social · 03/08/2026
The Secretary of Trans Sports?
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Reposted by Joshua Tait
The Bulwark @thebulwark.com · 03/08/2026
"I’m too old to change my ways. No Dale Carnegie for me. But perhaps some Democratic politicians could benefit from a dose?" @billkristolbulwark.bsky.social on Blanche and @joshuatait.bsky.social on the right's conflict over postliberalism in today's Morning Shots lnk.thebulwark.com/4yVMUZm
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hannah gais @hannahgais.bsky.social · 31/07/2026
The True Texas Project and Young Republicans are hosting multiple events in Texas next month with the head of a self-styled white nationalist "think tank," the White Papers Policy Institute. WPPI promotes mass deportations and "remigration." It has strong ties to major white nationalist groups.
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Joshua Tait @joshuatait.bsky.social · 30/07/2026
The Dink isn't a good movie, but it did have a great subtle gag. Two people talk about a new (fictional) Malcom Gladwell and one of them says it argues The Beatles were so good because they practiced.
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Joshua Tait @joshuatait.bsky.social · 30/07/2026
I don’t remember posting this but it’s funny and I was right.
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Joshua Tait @joshuatait.bsky.social · 29/07/2026
I was in the i Paper yesterday on the tech right and how they found their way to Trump---and what might happen next. inews.co.uk/news/world/t...
inews.co.uk
Why the tech bros really backed Trump - and why it could backfire
Silicon Valley's elite gambled on the President, but the unregulated surge of AI and crypto could see a political backlash
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Reposted by Joshua Tait
Joe Stieb @joestieb.bsky.social · 28/07/2026
Oh hey it’s me in the Bulwark going after the Bridge Colby aka The Cheese for his very dumb approach to strategic alliances.
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Jay Nordlinger @jaynordlinger.bsky.social · 26/07/2026
In recent weeks, people have talked incessantly of the new “Odyssey” movie. They have argued and fought. The below essay by @joshuatait.bsky.social is about passions surrounding Tolkien. What more could a literary artist want, than to be fought over ad infinitum? www.thebulwark.com/p/how-the-te...
thebulwark.com
How the Tech Right Learned to Love Mordor
The history of the American right’s long romance with J.R.R. Tolkien, from earnest fandom to arms-industry branding exercise.
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jamelle @jamellebouie.net · 23/07/2026
thoughts on finishing Andor season 2: benjamin bratt is so good as bail organa the show is great but i would have loved to see more of the internal politics of the rebel alliance that are highlighted somewhat in the final episode we need a show centered on the mon calamari
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Reposted by Joshua Tait
Joshua Tait @joshuatait.bsky.social · 23/07/2026
I had great fun writing this for The Bulwark, combining the type of conservative intellectual history I relish with culture commentary and some (sub-)Devil's Dictionary-type gags thrown in for good measure. How the Tech Right Learned to Love Mordor open.substack.com/pub/thebulwa...
open.substack.com
How the Tech Right Learned to Love Mordor
The history of the American right’s long romance with J.R.R. Tolkien, from earnest fandom to arms-industry branding exercise.
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Reposted by Joshua Tait
Adam Keiper @adamkeiper.com · 23/07/2026
On the messy, often contradictory, history of the love of J.R.R. Tolkien on the American right—from the old days of 'National Review' to the obsession a lot of Peter Thiel-affiliated tech types have with naming businesses after LOTR things. www.thebulwark.com/p/how-the-te...
thebulwark.com
How the Tech Right Learned to Love Mordor
The history of the American right’s long romance with J.R.R. Tolkien, from earnest fandom to arms-industry branding exercise.
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Joshua Tait @joshuatait.bsky.social · 23/07/2026
I had great fun writing this for The Bulwark, combining the type of conservative intellectual history I relish with culture commentary and some (sub-)Devil's Dictionary-type gags thrown in for good measure. How the Tech Right Learned to Love Mordor open.substack.com/pub/thebulwa...
open.substack.com
How the Tech Right Learned to Love Mordor
The history of the American right’s long romance with J.R.R. Tolkien, from earnest fandom to arms-industry branding exercise.
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Joshua Tait @joshuatait.bsky.social · 19/07/2026
Look, as nuts as the right has been on The Odyssey, this is just a regular day at the office for Armond White. You can’t extrapolate from this.
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Joshua Tait @joshuatait.bsky.social · 18/07/2026
Maybe if the Daily Wire had spent all that money on a super-duper historically accurate Odyssey film, it wouldn’t have been such a financial disaster!
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Joshua Tait @joshuatait.bsky.social · 17/07/2026
A very smart but also very fun piece. A real labor of love about Warhammer (and its dark appeal to the right.) open.substack.com/pub/thebulwa...
open.substack.com
In the Grim Darkness of the Far Future, There Is Only Culture War
How a forty-year-old satire of fascism became a meme for Trump, a flashpoint over women in sci-fi, and—for some fans—an actual political ideal.
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Adam Keiper @adamkeiper.com · 15/07/2026
Several books about the Odyssey have been timed to come out along with Christopher Nolan's new movie. Here—in her Bulwark writing debut—is Alyssa Rosenberg with a review of two: one by anti-liberalism icon Patrick Deneen, the other by classicist Joel Christensen. www.thebulwark.com/p/are-we-rea...
thebulwark.com
Are We Reading the Odyssey Wrong?
Two new books try to tame Homer’s hero. Neither succeeds.
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Reposted by Joshua Tait
Seth Cotlar @sethcotlar.bsky.social · 15/07/2026
This kind of John Birch Society rhetoric used to be the sort of thing most Americans laughed at. Now it’s just standard issue GOP talking points.
Speaker Mike Johnson -
@SpeakerJohnson
X.com
THE BARBARIANS ARE INSIDE THE GATE!
We are fighting right now in Congress over whether we're going to maintain our status as a constitutional republic OR trade that in, dismantle the foundations and GO DOWN THIS DARK ROAD OF DEATH TO COMMUNISM.
THAT is the question.
JULY X 202
[LIVE
I am piterereminded these days oDeSE REPUBLICAN LEADERS writings of de founders PRESS CONFERENCE
Forbes
BREAD
Rate proposed Community Notes
Last edited 10:05 AM • 7/14/26 • 1.3M Views
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Joshua Tait @joshuatait.bsky.social · 15/07/2026
Absolutely stoked to publish one of my favorite critics and culture writers today. www.thebulwark.com/p/are-we-rea...
thebulwark.com
Are We Reading the Odyssey Wrong?
Two new books try to tame Homer’s hero. Neither succeeds.
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Joshua Tait @joshuatait.bsky.social · 12/07/2026
Possible foreign policy implications from Graham’s sudden death: no guarantee that the next SC senator won’t be an America First isolationist rather than a turbo hawk.
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Reposted by Joshua Tait
Mike Koncewicz @mikekoncewicz.bsky.social · 09/07/2026
Thank you to @joshuatait.bsky.social and @thebulwark.com for publishing my take on JD Vance's recent defense of Richard Nixon. I couldn't help myself, especially since the speech took place down the hall from my old job. www.thebulwark.com/p/vance-and-...
thebulwark.com
Vance and Rufo Want You to Know That Nixon Is Back, Baby, and He’s Better Than Ever
The disgraced former president is undergoing a revival among the aggro New Right types, who admire his worst features.
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Joshua Tait @joshuatait.bsky.social · 09/07/2026
Platner Out: National Review hardest hit.
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Joshua Tait @joshuatait.bsky.social · 09/07/2026
Nixon---ironic, unfiltered, prejudiced, resentful---has become an avatar of the MAGA right, as Michael Koncewicz shows. www.thebulwark.com/p/vance-and-...
thebulwark.com
Vance and Rufo Want You to Know That Nixon Is Back, Baby, and He’s Better Than Ever
The disgraced former president is undergoing a revival among the aggro New Right types, who admire his worst features.
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Joshua Tait @joshuatait.bsky.social · 08/07/2026
Everyone eventually makes some sort of neocon explainer chart or device, and I am glad to have found this glossary from the Rothbard-Rockwell Report. Some things never change!
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Joshua Tait @joshuatait.bsky.social · 08/07/2026
A short libertarian quiz, courtesy of Murray N. Rothbard. Are you a paleolibertarian or a nihilolibertarain/modal libertarian?
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Joshua Tait @joshuatait.bsky.social · 07/07/2026
I can't believe Trump radicalized conservatives on immigration.
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Illiberalism Studies Program @illsp.bsky.social · 06/07/2026
Check out our new book, Frontiers of American Reaction Vol. 1! This ebook collects essays written from 2022 to 2026 and takes on themes ranging from myths and MAGA to the tech right and liberalism. Download it for free now! www.illiberalism.org/frontiers-of...
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Larry Glickman @larryglickman.bsky.social · 03/07/2026
As an American history professor, I regularly read new books, articles, and dissertations, and also evaluate unpublished manuscripts for journals and book publishers. I would not categorize the recent and emerging historiography in the binary way that Ezra Klein does.
There has been a severing of American history into two visions: one that can only see glory and one that can only see suffering and sin.
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Joshua Tait @joshuatait.bsky.social · 03/07/2026
open.substack.com/pub/joshuata...
open.substack.com
Notes Toward a Liberal Patriotism: Writing American History at This Sorry Juncture
Plus: Some professional news.
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Joshua Tait @joshuatait.bsky.social · 02/07/2026
My friend @lkatfield.bsky.social has execrable Trumpian id Michael Anton utterly dead to rights in this piece (and elsewhere). www.thebulwark.com/p/how-trumpi...
thebulwark.com
How Trumpism Betrays the Declaration of Independence
Cherry-picking Lincoln, the MAGA New Right tries to rewrite—or discard altogether—the promise of human equality.
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Joshua Tait @joshuatait.bsky.social · 26/06/2026
Here is a super thoughtful essay on the nature of neutrality and the way the Supreme Court lies to us (and to itself?) www.thebulwark.com/p/the-suprem...
thebulwark.com
The Supreme Court Says It’s Neutral. It’s Not.
Some of the Supreme Court’s recent decisions rely on the idea of neutrality. But its appeals to neutrality misunderstand the concept and mask a grasping approach to the law.
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Joshua Tait @joshuatait.bsky.social · 24/06/2026
I thought this was a super fun read. www.thebulwark.com/p/why-the-tr...
thebulwark.com
Why the Trump Administration Is Telling Us So Much About UFOs
How populists weaponize the language of transparency against our institutions.
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