20 Comments
Jul 28Liked by Sebastian Jensen

looks like over a third of these men are British-descent (counting Americans of English, Welsh, Scottish, etc) and a third are Jewish, very similar to the most significant American scientists post-1950

Expand full comment

Elon Musk doesn't strike me as a thinker of any sorts.

Expand full comment

Any such list is highly subjective. I would have included:

Edward Dutton – Evolutionary Psychology

Mattias Desmet

Michael Shellenberger

Charles Hugh Smith

Guillaume Faye

Michael Nehls

Expand full comment

I agree about Quillette having lost relevance. For some reason I had not read their articles for a while. Then I did yesterday, and discovered rote, conventional ideas with weak citations that actually directly contradicted the article assertions. Pulling my support for them.

Expand full comment

Eric Kaufmann? Ben Shapiro?

Expand full comment
author

Shapiro is a mirror. He reflects back to the audience what they wish to hear, therefore cannot be considered influential in his own right.

Kaufmann is not a bad choice, but at his highest he is in the honorable mentions category.

Expand full comment

Other names: Bari Weiss, Ayaan Hirsi Ali (and her husband!), and Douglas Murray.

Expand full comment

I think Ali's decision to convert was a big deal in 2024z

Expand full comment

Mid-2010s Shapiro popularized debating leftists to a good extent and gave people like Matt Walsh a platform. I think his influence on the culture war is undeniable.

Expand full comment

Actually read Harari. Then take him off the list post-haste.

Expand full comment

Missing Balaji Srinivasan. Your tiers don't make sense to me but he should be in there somewhere.

Expand full comment

Interesting list. Ofc Yarvin has many radical and relatively unique ideas, but is his reach that big? Seems weird for him to be in same category as Thiel but perhaps his reach is broader than I know.

Also I'd question including people like Yuval or Singer on the list as both seem to be at most center-left (roughly). In terms of sheet influence, however, both should be very high up imo.

Expand full comment

Konstantin Kisin and Niall Ferguson come to mind.

Expand full comment

Surely Ed West deserves a mention?

Expand full comment

Aporia is similar to Palladium and Quillette.

Expand full comment

Interesting article and list! I would consider adding the daily wire folks like Ben Shapiro and Matt Walsh who are both largely impactful.

Expand full comment

What about Spandrell?

Expand full comment
author

Punches well above his weight, but he's still niche. In terms of Neoreactionary philosophy, the most influential are Yarvin and Land; beyond that it's either mediocre thinkers or ones that fill a necessary void, Spandrell's being a more brutal and forthright style that the masses find off-putting.

Expand full comment

Anatoly Karlin?

Expand full comment
author

Contender in the 10s due to being one of the biggest (leading? not that familiar with that era) Russian reactionaries, but has since shifted his medium of transmission as well as his worldview. Time will tell whether he reaches the top again.

Expand full comment