Analysis

KLIPPER: You Think Elite Libs Are Bad? Just Wait Til Their Kids Take Over

ANALYSIS
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(Photo by Dave Kotinsky/Getty Images for Ford Foundation)

Gage Klipper Commentary & Analysis Writer
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“Hard times create strong men. Strong men create good times. Good times create weak men. And, weak men create hard times.”

It might surprise you that this quote, from a post-apocalyptic novel by contemporary author G. Michael Hopf, is actually quite modern; it seems to describe the eternal cycle of history. Yet it is especially salient in our current moment, as the children of the wealthiest and most prosperous generation in history increasingly begin to carry the civilizational mantle their parents built. Sadly, they do not seem up to the task. However, given the world we live in today, their incompetence is not entirely lamentable.

Take 37-year old Alex Soros: the poster child of the West’s embrace of weak men and hard times. The third son of financier George Soros, Alex took control of his father’s $25 billion leftist philanthropy empire in 2022. As the leader of the Open Society Foundations (OSF), he travels the world meeting with foreign leaders, dignitaries and oligarchs despite having few qualifications beyond his last name.

Say what you want about George Soros, but the man is undeniably brilliant. Before he became known as a Bond villain, he was “the man who broke the Bank of England.” Of Jewish-Hungarian descent, he survived the Holocaust in Nazi-occupied Hungary before emigrating to England in 1947. He earned a PhD from the London School of Economics and established his first hedge fund in 1969. From 1970-2000, the fund had an average 30% return, making him one of the most successful investors in history.

Alex, on the other hand, pales in comparison. While he has the fancy credentials of someone who grew up with a silver spoon, his formative years were apparently spent striving to be a social media influencer. “Gorgeous models, NBA pals and hide-and-seek at his mansion: Welcome to the lavish life of investor George Soros’ playboy son who’s set to inherit $24bn,” reads one 2016 headline from the Daily Mail. The post details his life drinking, partying and lounging by the pool with celebrities and “scenesters,” all meticulously documented on his own Instagram page.

No one ever expected him to follow his fathers footsteps, the Wall Street Journal reported shortly after he first took the reins. The “clear successor” would have been his more serious brother Jonathon, but the elder Soros never planned to hand off the foundation to any of his children at all. Yet Alex eventually “earned” his trust over the years working with the foundation.

“We think alike,” his father said, according to the Journal. Alex told the Journal, “I’m more political.” He’s certainly taken a more aggressive stance, meeting with everyone from President Joe Biden to leaders in Brazil, Canada and other countries. Most recently, he met with Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkhar who is currently pushing hate speech laws that, according to Michael Shellenberger, won’t just lead to censorship in Ireland but “put in place a system of mass censorship worldwide.”

This was part of his trip to the World Economic Forum in Davos last week, where he bemoaned right-wing “extremism” in American politics, threats to democracy, and Donald Trump — all the usual drivel. In one panel, his rambling made even our mush-mouthed Vice President Kamala Harris appear erudite and articulate. (RELATED: Surprise! The Global Elites Have Set Their Sights On A New Target: Free Speech)

“One man, Donald Trump, literally came in and just took [American norms and customs], you know, took that, took that all away. Um, you know, so, um, you know so um, you know — but when I see this, you know, when I look at this, um, you know, um you know, um — more globally regarding, regarding, you know, regarding democracy, I also say to myself, when was this great time that everybody got along so well and, you know, things were going so, so great?”

What he’s trying to convey, in far too many words, is the idea that Donald Trump single handedly came in and destroyed America’s democracy, defined by the progressive vision of OSF rather than any historically American ideals. We should be “careful” of the “nostalgia” Trump’s selling, because the “positive changes” ushered in by progressives are really America’s only claim to greatness. These words are indicative of the type of man the younger Soros really is — a blend of ignorance and arrogance.

It’s laughable watching him struggle to string together a sentence. He’s not a coherent thinker; he’s just parroting platitudes that are ubiquitous in the rest of his social circle. Yet an entitled brat who’s probably never had his originality or brilliance brought into question likely thinks he’s contributing world shattering insight.

However, unlike his father who actually experienced the worst humanity has to offer, Alex has known nothing but insular privilege. He never learned to appreciate what made America great, so instead sees Trumpism as backward nostalgia. So of course he’s “more political;” this is all just a clout-chasing game for someone deluded by self-confidence and who will never actually have to live with the consequences of his actions. He might sense, at some subconscious level, his own shortcomings, but he is unequipped to reckon with them. This will only make him more vicious. (RELATED: Nations Accused Of Human Rights Violations Lecture World At Davos)

So on the one hand, it’s a bad omen that Soros, and a younger generation of men like him, are increasingly stepping up to fill their more respectable fathers’ shoes. Expect more meddling in democracy (in the name of “democracy”) and aggressive pushes for censorship, immigration and fundamental denials of biological reality. With no respect for the past or tradition, all that’s left is blind utopianism — things will get worse before they get better.

But things will get better precisely because these “weak men” will, out of necessity, breed a new generation of hard men. And we might not even have to wait that long. The new generation of leaders are so aggressively dumb and arrogant they fail to see not only their own shortcomings, but the already brewing backlash. They will continue to overplay their hand on totalitarian social engineering schemes. But the second they are faced with some truly “hard” opponents, they will crumble.