This has been my experience as well. Ossified organizations ostriching. I think millennials/gen z are going to seize the reins of power from the boomers soon, in a fairly big upheaval of an ~5 year span. It’s only really happening on the fringes so far, but it’s starting to creep inwards. That’s the subtext of Zohran and Fuentes. I can only hope that dynamism comes to the sensible portions of the spectrum before they get eaten by the populists.
I’m curious: what was the average student’s reaction who attended the event? Were they mostly fusionist libertarians like yourself? Deneenian “post liberals”? Fuentes fans? Something else?
Good question, I don't really know... the reaction of the average student-who-I-talk-to-enough-to-have-talked-to-about-the-event was much like mine. When I said "it felt like they thought it was still 2015" to one junior, he said something along the lines of, "yeah, that basically sums up the Buckley Institute in general
Not sure how people outside this bubble felt! Campus news coverage of the event was pretty shit — there are a couple attendee quotes here (https://yaledailynews.com/blog/2025/11/17/desantis-bashes-liberal-dominance-at-yale-touts-florida-record/) and they seem to be along vaguely similar lines? One kid said he wanted to hear more about the future from DeSantis, the others all talked about how Yale-ish the governor seemed.
Deneen is definitely an influential voice among conservatives here, Fuentes less so. Libertarians are an extremely rare breed, but the liberal conservative, "I like markets, but hate drugs and abortion and maybe the gays too" type is around.
Maybe the weirdest thing about the conference, and something I wanted to work into the post but gave up on, is how *old* everyone was. They claimed to have ~300 undergraduate Buckley fellows who signed up, but I doubt more than 70 or 80 actually showed up. Instead, the conference was filled with fully-grown adults: my dinner table included a construction-company owner from upstate New York, his daughter (who goes to Univ. New Haven, not Yale), his business lawyer (one million year old Gorbachev-looking fellow), and a few professionals from the New Haven area (investment bankers, lawyers). From what I could tell, they all had a great time, liked DeSantis' speech very much — gave him a standing ovation, even. I suspect these guys were mostly MAGAish postliberals by instinct — not really the types who read Deneen.
Whatever the definition of true conservatism, the biggest issue our society faces is the fact that there will be no jobs and no income in a few decades for millions because of AI. All ideological and cultural debates will be nothing compare to the problems of every day life for most. No republicans or democrats are prepared to deal with that. And libertarians dont have answers as well. Before AI eventually generates enough wealth for all we will go through very tough times economically for a lot of people. And people vote mainly with their wallets in mind.
Interesting... I wonder what each side will start saying about regulation of AI firms & redistribution of their profits. DeSantis spent a few minutes talking about AI at the conference, but I couldn't tell at all what side he was on, if any — he just sort of whinged about how corporate America hates the little guy, but also innovation is really important and good.
My guess is that he doesn't really know what side he's on either, and is waiting till public opinion shifts decisively one way or another — which would imply that we'll eventually see a right-wing turn against the labs, when/if mass unemployment comes? Or maybe the new lobby (https://www.astralcodexten.com/p/tech-pacs-are-closing-in-on-the-almonds) will wedge itself in too deeply for that to happen? I'm very uncertain how this will end up relating...
It will be new political elite which will rule our society: technocrats, they will have all the money and will dictate polices. Politicians like De Santos will have no voice. JD and his Silicon Valley friends will rule, and the rest will live on universal income. That’s my prediction 😅
Depressingly low intellectual quality there too. Far too little obsessive searching for truth, and building everything up in a logically cohesive structure; far too much affect, mood, specious verbal syllogisms, and the insipid desire to exceed one another in extremity.
The Buckley things (/people) are generally much less intelligent or interesting than one would like!
Props to you for doing the full day lol
This has been my experience as well. Ossified organizations ostriching. I think millennials/gen z are going to seize the reins of power from the boomers soon, in a fairly big upheaval of an ~5 year span. It’s only really happening on the fringes so far, but it’s starting to creep inwards. That’s the subtext of Zohran and Fuentes. I can only hope that dynamism comes to the sensible portions of the spectrum before they get eaten by the populists.
I’m curious: what was the average student’s reaction who attended the event? Were they mostly fusionist libertarians like yourself? Deneenian “post liberals”? Fuentes fans? Something else?
Good question, I don't really know... the reaction of the average student-who-I-talk-to-enough-to-have-talked-to-about-the-event was much like mine. When I said "it felt like they thought it was still 2015" to one junior, he said something along the lines of, "yeah, that basically sums up the Buckley Institute in general
Not sure how people outside this bubble felt! Campus news coverage of the event was pretty shit — there are a couple attendee quotes here (https://yaledailynews.com/blog/2025/11/17/desantis-bashes-liberal-dominance-at-yale-touts-florida-record/) and they seem to be along vaguely similar lines? One kid said he wanted to hear more about the future from DeSantis, the others all talked about how Yale-ish the governor seemed.
Deneen is definitely an influential voice among conservatives here, Fuentes less so. Libertarians are an extremely rare breed, but the liberal conservative, "I like markets, but hate drugs and abortion and maybe the gays too" type is around.
Maybe the weirdest thing about the conference, and something I wanted to work into the post but gave up on, is how *old* everyone was. They claimed to have ~300 undergraduate Buckley fellows who signed up, but I doubt more than 70 or 80 actually showed up. Instead, the conference was filled with fully-grown adults: my dinner table included a construction-company owner from upstate New York, his daughter (who goes to Univ. New Haven, not Yale), his business lawyer (one million year old Gorbachev-looking fellow), and a few professionals from the New Haven area (investment bankers, lawyers). From what I could tell, they all had a great time, liked DeSantis' speech very much — gave him a standing ovation, even. I suspect these guys were mostly MAGAish postliberals by instinct — not really the types who read Deneen.
Whatever the definition of true conservatism, the biggest issue our society faces is the fact that there will be no jobs and no income in a few decades for millions because of AI. All ideological and cultural debates will be nothing compare to the problems of every day life for most. No republicans or democrats are prepared to deal with that. And libertarians dont have answers as well. Before AI eventually generates enough wealth for all we will go through very tough times economically for a lot of people. And people vote mainly with their wallets in mind.
Interesting... I wonder what each side will start saying about regulation of AI firms & redistribution of their profits. DeSantis spent a few minutes talking about AI at the conference, but I couldn't tell at all what side he was on, if any — he just sort of whinged about how corporate America hates the little guy, but also innovation is really important and good.
My guess is that he doesn't really know what side he's on either, and is waiting till public opinion shifts decisively one way or another — which would imply that we'll eventually see a right-wing turn against the labs, when/if mass unemployment comes? Or maybe the new lobby (https://www.astralcodexten.com/p/tech-pacs-are-closing-in-on-the-almonds) will wedge itself in too deeply for that to happen? I'm very uncertain how this will end up relating...
It will be new political elite which will rule our society: technocrats, they will have all the money and will dictate polices. Politicians like De Santos will have no voice. JD and his Silicon Valley friends will rule, and the rest will live on universal income. That’s my prediction 😅
Depressingly low intellectual quality there too. Far too little obsessive searching for truth, and building everything up in a logically cohesive structure; far too much affect, mood, specious verbal syllogisms, and the insipid desire to exceed one another in extremity.