I think the point about Vance isn't that he's a one-time blogger, but that he's an intellectual. Never mind the "elite college" stuff; most Yalies aren't intellectuals. Vance, though, is one, and an intellectual of a specific type: a bright kid from a provincial background suddenly finding himself having to make his way in a much more cosmopolitan milieu, and reacting strongly against it. He's a romantic antimodernist, which accounts for much of his fascination with Tolkien, who was also a romantic antimodernist. There were lots of them in the early twentieth century, and they made great prophets--but the trajectory of their ideas could take them to very dark places. I've spent a lot of time in southern intellectual circles, and have encountered this type a lot (at one time in my life, this type was *me*). Yes, he's managed to go far in politics despite that--but weirdos and conmen can go far in today's Republican Party just on Trump's endorsement, so I don't think that counts for much.
"The hard-working staff here at Drezner’s World thinks it is a mistake to generalize from JD Vance to bloggers in general. Vance is an outlier on several dimensions, and was not even a successful blogger. "
I think the point about Vance isn't that he's a one-time blogger, but that he's an intellectual. Never mind the "elite college" stuff; most Yalies aren't intellectuals. Vance, though, is one, and an intellectual of a specific type: a bright kid from a provincial background suddenly finding himself having to make his way in a much more cosmopolitan milieu, and reacting strongly against it. He's a romantic antimodernist, which accounts for much of his fascination with Tolkien, who was also a romantic antimodernist. There were lots of them in the early twentieth century, and they made great prophets--but the trajectory of their ideas could take them to very dark places. I've spent a lot of time in southern intellectual circles, and have encountered this type a lot (at one time in my life, this type was *me*). Yes, he's managed to go far in politics despite that--but weirdos and conmen can go far in today's Republican Party just on Trump's endorsement, so I don't think that counts for much.
"The hard-working staff here at Drezner’s World thinks it is a mistake to generalize from JD Vance to bloggers in general. Vance is an outlier on several dimensions, and was not even a successful blogger. "
You buried the lede.