I have only caught Nick Fuentes online, here and there, so I had not formed an opinion of him prior to the conference. To be perfectly candid, I tend to not pay much attention to young people. Never trust anyone under thirty is a good policy. On the other hand, sensible people I know say he is a bright young prospect with a lot of talent. I was most curious to see how the younger people reacted to him. Old people tend to think positively of young people who sound like old people, but young people often hate those guys.

For starters, he is a slight fellow. I am always surprised by this as everyone on video tends to look average size to me. More important, he is a natural speaker. You can be trained to be a good public speaker, but you will always look like you were trained to be a good public speaker. For some people, it comes naturally. Fuentes is a natural. How he stands, how he scans the audience as he speaks, his hand gestures all work to support the content of his speech. It is easy to see why he has become an on-line star.

I am not sure if I got an answer on his appeal to his generations. His speech was on the utility of gassing the boomers, so half the crowd was not particularly happy with him. The millennials seemed to be the most engaged, which I found interesting. Maybe they still feel young so they can relate to him but appreciate his maturity. The young guys were engaged, but it was hard to tell if they were listening. It was not like he was mobbed by the young people seeking a selfie, but the ones I asked said nice things about him….

The protest was a dud. At the peak, they had between 30 and 40 people, but it was a late arriving crowd and they left early. My guess is the ban on masks and the ban on backpacks had the biggest impact on turnout. That and they were put into a pen that was too far away for anyone to notice them. That left them to mill around and signal to one another, which meant no drama. There was no way to interfere with people coming and going and no real way for them to provoke law enforcement into doing anything to them…

I ran into a reporterette from NBC. At least she claimed to be from NBC. I did not see her credentials. She tried using her feminine wiles to cozy up to me and dig for information about the financing of American Renaissance. Later, J’Onquarious suggested I should have told her the man behind the event was George Soros. That would have been some great 5-D chess, but I could not have pulled it off without laughing. It is another reminder that the people in liberal media are all soulless dirtbags who lie on spec…

One group that I have praised in the past is Identity Evropa. I got to spend some time talking with the head of that group, Patrick Casey. He is a very sensible young man without a lot of ego. He just wants to build up the group and avoid unnecessary confrontations and publicity. It is basically a Dissident Right social club for young college age males. It is the kind of organic organization that is required to build a foundation for the future. If you have a few bucks to spare, they could use it and they will use it wisely…

I met Greg Hood, who writes for American Renaissance. Most people in this thing consider him the best writer going and that is probably right. He is very much on board with the notion of dialing back the e-celebs and focusing on organization building. Something he pointed out that I did not consider is that the cycle of provocation and response we see with the e-celebs is addicting. That and it inevitably means the liberal media picks our leaders. They ignore Jared Taylor and instead focus on some internet personality.

That has been a theme here thus far in the casual conversations I have had with the prominent alt-right/Dissident Right people. The lesson of the last year is that too many supposedly responsible people have gone out of their way to court attention. The result is bad publicity, lawsuits and lots of public feuds. That is encouraging. It means the right people are learning the right lessons. As I am fond of pointing out, this is a social war where the battlefield is public morality. It is not about changing facts. It is about changing attitudes…

Of course, the great John Derbyshire was in attendance. I must admit that I still find it odd for someone of his stature to compliment my work. He took the time to chat with J’Onquarious and me and said something to the effect, “I want to thank both of you for the work you do.” He does not have to do that, but that is why he is one of the giants in this thing. The fact is, Derb and Sailer have done more for our cause than anyone. Jared Taylor does great work, but those two cast very long shadows…

During a break, someone handed me a Rebel flag decal. In my youth, Rebel flags were common, and no one really thought much of it. They were a symbol of Southern pride, but no one felt that strongly about it. In a time of universal deceit —having a Rebel flag is a revolutionary act. I think I will affix my decal to the bumper of the Jaguar. That seems like the right thing to do for some reason. Perhaps after the cocktail hour. Now, I go to drink and socialize with the rest of the haters…