The “Likable”/“Unlikable” Political Realignment

Far-right political commentator Bethany Mandel took to X to remark about how other moms in her neighborhood don’t like her because she’s shitty to trans kids.

This is a good example of what I think is an underappreciated dynamic that’s played out in American politics over the last decade or more. We talk about political realignments a lot, and that’s because the evolution of American politics recently has been a series of overlapping realignments. One of the most important, but least remarked upon, is “likable” versus “unlikable.”

Put simply, American conservatism, and particularly the GOP, became a welcoming home for unlikeable people. If you’re the kind of person others really want nothing to do with, not so much because of your views but because of your personality, and particularly if that personal noxiousness took the form of a hatred for, or abusive behavior towards, others you view as your lesser, the left was likely to cancel you, while the right was likely to give you a soft landing after your cancellation.

As this trend went on, it reinforced itself. How many progressive celebrities, when exposed as sex pests, pivoted to the right? How many people who’d built careers on being not right-wing then made a racist remark and built a new career in the far-right’s grievance industry? How many bosses, told by their HR departments that you can’t actually treat your female colleagues like that, turned a little MAGA?

It’s not that there are no unlikeable people outside of the American right. There are plenty. I get them yelling at me in my Bluesky mentions all the time. But the mainstream of the American right elevated unlikableness to a badge of honor in a way the mainstream of the American left did not. And once the culture in the mainstream of the American right turned sufficiently toxic, toxic people found themselves drawn to it, and non-toxic people found themselves fleeing or pushed out. The same thing happens when a large organization gets toxic leadership and then rots from the top down.

What happened next is that all those unlikeable people, finding themselves together in a coalition, turned their unlikeableness into an ideology. The very personality and value features that made them offputting they elevated to principled commitments with political consequences. They leaned into the unlikeability not just as a personal project, but as a political one.

You Haven’t Been Canceled. You’re Just Unlikable. - Aaron Ross Powell's Blog

It’s good the moms of Montgomery County are giving Mandel the cold shoulder. People who behave like her should be given the cold shoulder. Don’t be a jerk to kids is a pretty fundamental ethical characteristic of good people. It’s a positive sign for our society that people like Mandel and those like her have a hard time making friends, because you shouldn’t want to be friends with someone like Mandel.

The next step is convincing the mainstream of the American right that they should feel the same way.

Most Americans Aren’t Fascists, and That’s a Big Problem for the GOP - Aaron Ross Powell's Blog

When you let rot into your coalition, your entire coalition eventually turns rotten.