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Your reply made me interested in learning more about David French, so I went to his substack and read his post about John Adams Fear, which I enjoyed and though

Your reply made me interested in learning more about David French, so I went to his substack and read his post about John Adams Fear, which I enjoyed and thought was pretty balanced. I was wondering, and maybe someone else can chime in, why the author of this article said: "OK, so, there’s this thing where if you write a bunch you hope you eventually build up some trust with your audience. You try to be generally reliable and trustworthy in hopes that they come to believe you are generally reasonable, that you wouldn’t try to trick them, and that you aren’t David French. If any of these three things aren’t true, they rightfully come to distrust you." There is some context I'm missing here, why do you think the author felt tricked by David French?

ss108 4y ago
It's a bit of a clumsy joke I think; David French's previous followers turned on him, as explained above. He maintained his moral and intellectual integrity whereas many of his longtime readers and fans betrayed theirs. So it didn't matter that he had built-up trust. He didn't genuflect to Orange Man and go along sheepishly for the ride the Republican Party has decided to take, so they ditched him.
- UncleOxidant 4y ago
  This is my understanding as well for the criticism of French: He's still very much a conservative, but the definition of "conservatism" has changed to include fealty to an individual instead of (or perhaps in addition to, in some cases) a set of principles. In that context he's maintained his principles and it's led to a lot of criticism from those who have changed theirs in ways they don't seem to be aware of.
kemayo 4y ago
The author does answer this question in the comments: https://www.residentcontrarian.com/p/nobody-will-admit-the-best-novel/comment/6291596 https://www.residentcontrarian.com/p/nobody-will-admit-the-b...
- UncleOxidant 4y ago
  His take seems to assume that French has changed his positions, but it seems (from my reading anyway) that French is still quite conservative. I think this is more about how the definition of "conservative" has changed over the last 5-7 years or so.

ss108 4y ago

It's a bit of a clumsy joke I think; David French's previous followers turned on him, as explained above. He maintained his moral and intellectual integrity whereas many of his longtime readers and fans betrayed theirs. So it didn't matter that he had built-up trust. He didn't genuflect to Orange Man and go along sheepishly for the ride the Republican Party has decided to take, so they ditched him.

UncleOxidant 4y ago
This is my understanding as well for the criticism of French: He's still very much a conservative, but the definition of "conservatism" has changed to include fealty to an individual instead of (or perhaps in addition to, in some cases) a set of principles. In that context he's maintained his principles and it's led to a lot of criticism from those who have changed theirs in ways they don't seem to be aware of.

kemayo 4y ago

The author does answer this question in the comments: https://www.residentcontrarian.com/p/nobody-will-admit-the-best-novel/comment/6291596 https://www.residentcontrarian.com/p/nobody-will-admit-the-b...

UncleOxidant 4y ago
His take seems to assume that French has changed his positions, but it seems (from my reading anyway) that French is still quite conservative. I think this is more about how the definition of "conservative" has changed over the last 5-7 years or so.