Greets! Today is December 11, 2025. Fourteen days 'till Christmas. Lots of snow up here in the southern tier of New York, just to put the realistic touch to it.
Today in History:
2008: Bernie Madoff is arrested.
1997: The Kyoto Protocol is accepted, for a while.
1941: The U.S. declares war on Italy and Germany.
1620: The Mayflower lands at Plymouth Rock.
Birthdays today include: John Kerry, George Mason, and composer Hector Berlioz.
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I’ve stayed pretty much clear of the controversy surrounding Nick Fuentes and Tucker Carlson, except for the occasional comment wondering what the bleep happened to Carlson's once-functioning brain. I stayed clear until now, that is.
What changed is John Hinderaker at Powerline posting a piece yesterday that I think deserves comment.
Recently we have been told by the liberal press that some guy named Nick Fuentes, whom nobody had heard of and who has accomplished more or less nothing in life, is now the Pied Piper of American youth. Millions of young men, in particular, supposedly are avid followers of Fuentes’ bizarre political pronouncements.
I never believed it. First, I don’t believe that millions of young American men think Josef Stalin and Adolf Hitler were admirable figures. Second, Fuentes exists only online. Does he ever appear anywhere? Does he draw a crowd? There are influencers who have large numbers of online followers that are actually legitimate. Riley Gaines, to cite one example out of many, has a huge online following, but she also draws big crowds wherever she goes. Real people follow her, and real people want to hear her speak. And I hear people talking about Riley and her views, whereas I have never heard anyone mention Nick Fuentes, outside the context of his supposedly having a big following.
I see nothing I disagree with here, so far. Honestly, though, I can’t help wondering what is behind some of this bit. Want to pole vault into instant online popularity with certain groups? Tell them what they want to hear. I’m quite sure that there are many on the left who enjoy this situation and its ability to tag anyone to the right of Fidel Castro as a Trump-loving, Hitler-worshipping Nazi supporter. Fuentes has certainly done well in acting the part.
As for Carlson, I’ve always thought he's just along for the ride. Anything to keep your name in lights, I suppose. That makes him a useful tool, a name to draw attention to Fuentes, and little else.
Of the link between Carlson and Fuentes being intentional, or just being sheer stupidity, I don't know, nor do I much care. I will say, though, that regardless of what dragged Carlson's name into this circus tent, it doesn't speak well of Carlson. And I wonder again, what happened to him.
However that may be, it turns out that this whole thing with Fuentes showing up on the tongues and keyboards of disruptives everywhere was total Astroturf, as John points out. That lowers the chance of Fuentes acting on his own to as near nil as no matter.
🚨BREAKING: A new report from @ncri_io shows that Nick Fuentes's sudden mainstream visibility reflects a coordinated illusion instead of a grassroots surge.
— Colin Wright (@SwipeWright) December 8, 2025
According to NCRI, Fuentes's rise was driven by synchronized amplification networks, anonymous booster accounts, foreign… pic.twitter.com/eLCff8y1hG
A key point in this report:
- Manipulation of X's algorithms: NCRI compared early engagement on @NickJFuentes's posts with those of major influencers like @elonmusk, @hasanthehun, @IanCarrollShow, and @TheOmniLiberal Somehow, Fuentes massively outperformed all of them in the first 30 minutes.
- A coordinated booster network: 61% of early retweets come from accounts that repeatedly amplify multiple Fuentes posts within the same 30-minute window. 92% are anonymous; many openly identify as Groypers or "signal boosters." Their feeds exist almost solely to promote him.
The always less-than-tech-savvy media fell head over heels for it, reveling in the chance to toss some mud, however indirectly, at Donald Trump yet again. No shock there, and I expect this was the whole purpose of the Astroturfing.
The sheer volume of supposedly foreign accounts retweeting this stuff cannot be coming from the places the X system thinks they’re coming from. That would involve far too many people. John's point about Fuentes directly manipulating respondents? In my view, that's way too much for him to coordinate. I figure at least a goodly bunch of that traffic is coming from a small group of people intent on disrupting things. It's likely that VPNs are being used to prevent the tweets from being accurately tracked. Sorry, folks, but past experience has proven that the people who would benefit from this kind of thing generally are the type who require instructions on shampoo bottles.
One thought: This would be on the same level of tech savvy that wrote the back doors in the voting machines the Chinese supplied not so long ago. Oddly, they'd benefit greatly from this kind of operation. So would Never-Trumper RINOs, for that matter. Certainly, I have myself begun to regard Carlson that way.
Elon Musk suggests there is evidence of his being a federal operative. Meh. I don't think so, but a tech-savvy miscreant or two is certainly at the heart of this thing. I'm not sure I buy that it's a Fed, but it's possible, I suppose.
Hey, Elon: You might want to look at a list of disgruntled former employees, anyone who would have inside information on how to manipulate the algorithms at X. For what it’s worth, I doubt it’s Fuentes himself. He doesn’t seem smart enough to pull that off on his own.
This whole situation brings up some questions about how much of this puppeteering is going on at X, and I don't have an answer for that. I do, though, expect to see more of it as we get closer to the midterms.
Take care of yourselves today. Be you, and stand up for your values. Nobody else will.
See you tomorrow.
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