Welcome to the Era of Grug Nationalism

Brussels; Straßburg; Paris; Rome

I’m going to break in to my self-imposed radio silence.

Because there’s an important point, relating to the MEP elections on Sunday, that I have to get on record.

While there was a whole lot to be pleased about from Sunday’s results, there’s also a downside. Warning signs. Heavy weather ahead.

I fear we may be starting in on what I have just termed the Era of Grug Nationalism.

Several months ago, I expressed the fear that the underdelivering on the part of the Meloni government in Italy would trigger a disappointment-disillusionment-disengagement doom loop that would splat all over the continent’s pop-nat universe.

After these last two days, I now realize that the real problem we have, the one I should have been more worried about, is the inverse of that.

It’s that cucking out and delivering nothing meaningful, as Meloni has, and as MLP is well on the course to doing, has zero political consequence. In fact, it has the opposite of bad political consequences. It’s how to experience gains and growth. It’s the path to victory in “our” sector.

It’s sending the wrong message and creating the wrong moral hazards and creating an undesirable OODA reward loop.

Even worse than that, there is a big risk that Meloni-MLP-ism, grug nationalism, is going to create a really stable political Lagrange point between genuine nationalism on one end and the current ruling class on the other. To put it another way, grug nationalism will sit in between them. It’ll deliver enough rhetoric and ear tickling to win elections, but never actually desire to accomplish much of anything, and that’s how it placates the real ruling class.

Because, as the Monday coming down after the Sunday jubilation showed me, disheartingly so, most of our own sector’s electorate are perfectly happy with having their ears tickled and nothing more.

I fully expect the real ruling class establishment to realize this and play chess. What it means is that they’re going to make life hell for real nationalists, but go “not as hard” on grug nationalists of the Meloni-MLP mold. Human beings, who are creatures that tend to follow the path of least resistance, will “get the message” and follow through accordingly.

To put this another way, I predict the ruling class will use grug nationalism as a dummy load, a pressure release valve, so that nationalist-minded voters can outsource their patriotism to them, make them feel like they’re accomplishing something, but in reality, nothing is actually going to be accomplished, and the system isn’t much threatened.

Note: The real reason Macron called for snap legislative elections in several weeks is because he’s hoping to catch the RN while it’s monetarily depleted after the MEP season. RN’s number two on the MEP list is an Algerian woman opposed to remigration and the AfD. Which proves my point.