“It by no means received bizarre sufficient for me,” as soon as spoken by Hunter S. Thompson, is an apt mantra for the devoted followers of eccentric conservative blogger Rod Dreher. Over the past 12 years, Dreher, whose weblog at The American Conservative will put up for the final time Friday, has constructed a cult following with a number of the most weird diatribes in opinion journalism. He has warned that so-called sissy hypnosis porn is “profoundly evil;” detailed the “formal” Catholic exorcism of a good friend’s suicidal spouse; and recalled—in unsettling element—the time he witnessed a Black classmate’s uncircumcised penis.
However one explicit reader, upon studying the final of mentioned posts, decided the weblog had merely gotten too bizarre, in keeping with two sources aware of the publication. That disgruntled reader was Howard Ahmanson Jr., the inheritor to a California banking fortune and the only benefactor of Dreher’s six-figure wage at TAC, which is revealed by American Concepts Institute, a nonprofit. This distinctive funding association—a single donor selecting to cowl one author’s complete wage—was paired with an much more uncommon editorial association: Dreher was allowed to publish straight on TAC’s website with none revisions or authorized oversight, in keeping with the 2 sources.
Dreher, Ahmanson, and Emile Doak, TAC’s govt director, didn’t reply to requests for remark.
Ahmanson had apparently lengthy admired the work of Dreher, who has authored quite a few conservative books and beforehand wrote for the Beliefnet weblog and The Dallas Morning Information. However in keeping with the 2 sources, Ahmanson started to bitter on his beneficiary in 2021, when Dreher, in a weblog put up debating circumcision, wrote the next: “All us boys needed to stare at his primitive root wiener after we have been on the urinal throughout recess, as a result of it was monstrous. No person instructed us that wieners may seem like that.” Extremely, that was the “first pink flag” for Ahmanson, one supply instructed me, including that the rift had been constructing for a few yr.
A few of Dreher’s commentary on the homosexual and transgender communities additionally proved off-putting to Ahmanson, reminiscent of his lurid musings on anal intercourse, rectal bleeding, and the “partially rotted off” nostril of a homosexual man who contracted monkeypox. “Sooner or later, he mainly determined, ‘That is too bizarre,’” the supply, paraphrasing Ahmanson, defined to me. “‘I don’t need to learn this or pay for this anymore.’”
And, after all, it didn’t assist that the blogger, who resides in Hungary, virtually brought on a small geopolitical disaster final month, when he mistakenly revealed remarks made by Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orbán throughout a session with different pleasant pundits that Dreher thought on the time was on the file. Dreher, whose keep within the nation is being partially funded by a assume tank with shut ties to the Hungarian authorities, revealed Orbán’s assertions that NATO is “in a conflict with Russia” and that he needs to depart the European Union, feedback that ran counter to the regime’s official insurance policies and weren’t meant for publication. When Dreher realized his mistake, he modified the put up’s wording to recommend that Orbán had maintained his public place.
Stateside, the weblog’s lack of editorial oversight has brought on TAC authorized complications too. Final yr, the publication settled a defamation go well with out of courtroom, per the 2 sources, that stemmed from a put up that Dreher had written accusing a Kentucky highschool scholar of selling “LGBT consciousness,” bullying classmates, and “disrespecting academics.”
As for Dreher’s future, he has mentioned he plans to maneuver his weblog to a Substack whereas persevering with at TAC as an editor at giant and can “most likely” contribute a column––this time, per the 2 sources, beneath an editor’s supervision. “I need to thank Howard and Roberta Ahmanson for his or her beneficiant monetary help of me at TAC for my run right here,” he wrote in a Friday farewell he revealed after being notified of this story. Remarking that he wrote “vital issues” and “silly issues” throughout his time at TAC, Dreher closed with a nod to a put up he mentioned match the latter class: “All you Mongoloids have been the Primitive Root Wiener in my Fortunate Canine, and I really like you very a lot.”
The weblog’s finish marks a serious change for the publication. For years, Dreher has been the centerpiece of TAC’s digital entrance web page, and his voice has confirmed influential inside conservative circles by many election cycles. There even seems to be a direct line between his time at TAC and J.D. Vance’s Senate victory final yr: Simply after Dreher’s viral 2016 interview with the Hillbilly Elegy writer was launched, Vance’s ebook acquired a giant bump, scaling the best-seller charts.
