Tom Nichols

And what you're seeing now is absolute fury

at a culture and a social environment that still rejects these folks.

And I think you see that with all of them.

I just wrote a piece about Pete Hegseth and Harvard.

Pete Hexeth has a degree from Harvard, which he symbolically gave back.

I'm sure Harvard was worried about that.

But it's not that Harvard did anything wrong.

It's that Pete Hexeth went to Princeton, went to Harvard, and yet didn't feel accepted in those worlds.

So now he's doubly angry.

about it.

Steve Bannon gets a degree from Harvard and goes to Hollywood but doesn't feel accepted in that world and now wants to burn down institutions.

It's like Donald Trump in Queens looking in Manhattan and saying, if I just get enough money and enough gold and enough pretty girls, they'll accept me over on that emerald island.

And it's never going to happen.

And there is no rage

You know, human beings rarely have the kind of rage they feel when they feel that kind of entitlement and then rejection.

And I think that's a huge part of what you're seeing with all of this stuff going on about people that really thought they were, you know, I always think of this is going to be a niche industry.

And I know Rick will get it, but it also reminds me of the stonecutters on The Simpsons, you know, where we finally kick out Homer and then they go make their own no-Homers club.

It's like, but we want to be stonecutters.

Well, no, now we're going to have another, we're going to have a no-Donald's club.

And they just can't deal with that because they don't understand that you can't buy or command respect or cultural affection.