September 18, 2026

IT’S A HATE CULT:

Watching Bigots Erupt (David French, Sept. 17, 2026, NY Times)

I had two responses to French’s tweet. First, the picture itself helps refute one of the most common arguments from the populist right — that immigrants from Asia and the global south can’t assimilate into American culture, that there’s just something about them that’s different from, say, the Irish or, in the president’s famous formulation, Norwegians, that prevents them from becoming truly American.

I’m sorry, but when you’re wearing a cowboy hat, losing your mind at a college-football game and throwing up the (very annoying) hook ‘em horns sign, you’re doing a lot of things and one of them is assimilating.

In fact, anyone who spends five minutes with immigrants knows and sees the power of American culture. It’s a prime reason people come here in the first place. They don’t want to replace Americans; they want to be Americans.

But don’t tell that to MAGA populists. They came out in force to defend French. They’re here to tell you that, regardless of whether the students in that picture were immigrants or natural-born American citizens, there is something about their home countries — or their parents’ home countries — that will always and forever make them different and somehow dangerous for the American experiment.

And also, there is a real victim here: white people, and white men especially.

“Texas politicians rigged the game against their own citizens,” Sean Davis, the co-founder of The Federalist, wrote, “broke the rules to make sure their own children didn’t suffer under the new regime, and then had an absolute meltdown when one guy pointed it [out]. Here are the latest numbers at the University of Texas: only 13% of undergrads are white men.”

Andrew Kolvet, a spokesman for Turning Point USA, the organization Charlie Kirk co-founded, and the executive producer of the Charlie Kirk Show, wrote: “America was ~80% white 40 years ago. Now it’s ~50%. The demographic replacement of America is happening at a historic, truly insane pace. It’s not racist to notice.”

Jack Posobiec, a MAGA influencer with an immense following, posted, “Defend @bofrench like the Alamo.” (Given the fate of the Alamo, I’m not sure that’s the analogy Posobiec wants to use, but never mind about that.)

And if you want to know why South Asians can’t assimilate, then Steve Deace, a Christian talk show host, can tell you: “Why is it a bad idea to import so many people from India? Just 2.3% of India is Christian.”

On that theme, John Daniel Davidson, a senior editor at The Federalist, posted on X, “You know what would be way WAY more Texas-assimilated than wearing a cowboy hat and cheering at a Longhorn game? If Indian immigrants converted to Christianity and tore down the 90-foot demon monkey statue they erected in Sugar Land.”

(Davidson is referring to a statue of Lord Hanuman, a part-monkey, part-human Hindu deity, that was consecrated in 2024.)

These arguments get to my second, deeper response to French’s post. Parts of the populist right are taking aim at the American experiment itself.

Not part, all.