Amazon's Jeff Bezos has stirred the media landscape by denying the Washington Post's wish to endorse Kamala Harris for President, according to an article by James Poulos in The Blaze.
More importantly, Bezos' long-term plans to make the newspaper's opinion section less liberal have raised eyebrows.
The question is what these plans will mean, given the current identity crisis within the political right. The departure of a leading neoconservative from a paper seeking more conservative voices may seem ironic, but it raises the question of who truly represents conservatism today.
According to a New York Times report, Bezos has expressed interest in expanding The Post's conservative audience. He has appointed Will Lewis, a former executive at the Rupert Murdoch-owned Wall Street Journal, and has informed him of his desire for more conservative writers in the opinion section.
However, the definition of "conservative" is under scrutiny. The term has struggled to maintain relevance amid the rise of various subcultures within the right that feel the term is too vague, broad, dated, and unsuccessful to represent their identities.
The resignation of Robert Kagan, a top self-described neoconservative, from the Post further highlights this issue. The neoconservative sect, which emerged from reactionary liberals in the 1980s, became a dominant faction in the conservative movement and the Bush-era GOP in the 2000s. However, with the Cheneys' endorsement of Harris, it seems that neoconservatism may no longer align with traditional conservative values.
The digital age has also played a role in this shift. Bezos, who rose to prominence through digital technology, is now at the helm of a newspaper grappling with the impact of this technology on traditional conservatism. The rapid advancement of digital tech has challenged the principles and values of the Moral Majority era, leading to a reevaluation of what is worth conserving.
As ideologies crumble, liberals have turned to wokeness, while conservatives have fragmented into various subcultures. Bezos, a tech titan, is now faced with the challenge of reviving conservatism against the grain of technology.
There is speculation that Bezos may be among the leading AI figures who believe that technology is on the verge of "solving politics" and eliminating the need for ideologies. As some of these figures turn to worshipping AI, it is possible that Bezos sees religion as the only constant in mankind, as Alexis de Tocqueville once said.
In the face of these changes, Bezos' plans for the Post remain to be seen. If he recognizes the need for a radical renaissance in the media, he may look beyond partisan labels to find writers who can navigate the complexities of this new era.
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