Rush Week and Red Hats
It's not hate; it's fear.
There’s a certain phenomenon that happens on Twitter (I will not call it “X”) every year right around the end of the summer and the beginning of fall, in that sweet spot between August and September. For most, it’s move-in week as undergrad students inhabit their dwellings for the year. But for fraternities and sororities, it’s Rush Week. For the embittered and disgusted left-leaning observers, it’s their nightmare manifest.
As the elite societies on university campuses across America make their case for why you should join, Twitter reviles in horror at the outstanding privilege, beauty, and companionship these societies uphold. The very sight of wealthy, healthy college students participating in the traditions of brotherhood and sisterhood sends our enemies spiraling into fits of rage. Our very own Grant Brooks had a quote tweet covering such revulsion:
You can tell by the wording of the original poster’s tweet that they are not too fond of the young men in collared shirts and boat shoes. These young gentlemen have committed no crime, they have not violated any social standards, nor have they offended any decent norms. They simply dressed themselves well and walked into a fraternity house to begin the ritual of joining a fraternity.
I could include hundreds of tweets lambasting and lashing out at these young men and perhaps even more tweets spitting upon the sorority Rush Week videos, in which the elder sisters choreograph dances to encourage first-year girls to join their ranks. Even if you were never a member of a Greek society in your undergraduate years, you know the vitriol of which I speak.
Years back, I used to be surprised by such hatred directed at these recruitment videos, but I came to learn that the outrage towards these young people works like clockwork on Twitter. Now, I find a sort of comfort in watching the backlash — not because I agree with the backlash, but because I can predict the response. I remember when quite a similar response happened during a very different situation in January 2019 (this time I will include some of the outrageous tweets to jog your memory):
Do you remember the bloodlust? Do you remember the anger? Yet what was the crime of the young man in the video? He had smirked at a man he wasn’t allowed to smirk at during a pro-life rally while wearing a MAGA hat. That’s it.
Nicholas Sandmann was accused of racism, intimidation, and bullying just for standing in front of a Native American man while grinning. The media went into a full-force public inquisition into his non-action. It took some time before the facts were revealed that the Covington Catholic boys were accosted that very day by Black Hebrew Israelites; and not only did they not intimidate Nathan Phillips of the Omaha Tribe, who was presented as the victim of racist abuse, but Mr. Phillips was the one who had approached the Catholic school pro-life demonstrators.
The abuse hurled at the young men whom Mr. Brooks referenced above is the same strain of abuse that Nicholas Sandmann and his classmates endured. The young men preparing to pledge a fraternity and Mr. Sandmann committed the same crime: existing while privileged.
Why is there so much hate? Why is there so much vitriol for these young men who have not acted out in any unseemly ways? It is clearly hatred, but it goes much deeper than mere jealousy or conventional politics.
Our enemies fear these men and women. If you identify as being part of a fraternity/sorority, or even as a Catholic school teenager with a MAGA hat, they do not hate you simply for who you are, but also for what you might become. Greek life means exclusivity for its members. It means connections that others cannot attain, a bond that is not equal and not easily replicated. It means opportunities that others will not be able to access. If you attended a private Catholic high school with an emphasis on pro-life matters, it means that you belong to an upstanding ecosystem that they cannot corrupt. Our enemies don’t just see snot-nosed kids having fun; they see future leaders who will question their hegemony.
Whenever a teenager joins a Greek society or attends a pro-life rally, it means that they have failed to capture another young mind. Despite all of the propaganda in high schools, universities, and workplaces designed to make young, wealthy, healthy, attractive, and privileged Americans denounce their heritage and make them feel ashamed of themselves and their country, it’s the frat boys, sorority girls, and Nicholas Sandmanns who emerge every year that send shivers down the spines of our political enemies.
Our enemies will hate you, degrade you, slander you, and try to ruin your life. Fear not their attacks, because you have done nothing wrong. Remember, this is the face they revile and attack, yet truly fear.
I do agree with the sentiment here.
But, while we're on the topic, I think it's worth pointing out the serious problems with Greek Life. Just because the Left hates frats and sororities doesn't mean we have to support them unconditionally. The anti-scholastic culture of perpetual adolescence exhibited in American higher education is propped up in no small part by fraternities and sororities. Hedonism and irresponsibility are their hallmarks. They might be overwhelmingly populated by white, middle-and-upper class heritage Americans (and for that reason targeted by Leftists) but the culture that they prop up is a direct consequence of modernity and liberality. Rabbit Twitter activists might hate on frat boys, but in reality, Greek Life supports the Left culturally.
I don't think lumping in Nick Sandmann-types (who was himself attending a pro-life rally as a part of his Catholic school) with your average frat boy is wise. If we want to be training future leaders and young aristocrats, we need to actually train them, not send them off to university to be raised by other children a few years their senior, so they can learn how to binge drink and participate in sexual hedonism. Young men and women need older men and women to guide them. They need discipline, responsibility, hardship, and sound leadership to develop them. What they don't need is to be sent off to college to be raised by their generational peers.
People who say stuff like that make me sick. No one should ever threaten violence against kids for wearing polo shirts and frat cleats. True fashion never goes out of fashion.
If you just look at the physiognomy of some of those individuals making the tweets that hyperbolically call for violence, it tells you everything you need to know.
I wouldn't say its hate or fear -its just plain jealousy. Fratstars and Sorostitutes have changed little -if at all, over the years (it's like a time warp to the good ol' days of 2008-2012). But when you look at the freaks -they have. I live in a town that features a predominant art school, and it's night and day compared to the way the 'scene kids' dressed when I was in college. And that's what these people were when they were in college -the freaks.
Fratstars had their "slampieces," they got plastered on Friday Nights (or every night), staggered to the stadium on Saturday, and slept till 4 pm on Sunday. What did the freaks do, they listened to indie-music, watched slam poetry about trans-liberation, and generally huffed their own self-entitlement, while the Fratstars had the time of their lives...bothering no one, mind you.
These freaks -as we like to say, are 'spiteful mutants'. They're mad at the natural socio-economic hierarchy. How these "Chads and Stacys' drank and fucked their way through college -and still landed a job at Daddy's dealership -or their uncle's law firm. While they are pushing 40 as baristas, while still chasing the dream of a career in journalism.
The fact that these guys are "MAGA" and vote Republican is window-dressing to seething loathsome malice that these creatures have for their betters.