We Don’t Have a Voice Shortage

We have a support problem — and it’s costing us the people already doing the work.

We Don’t Have a Voice Shortage. We Have a Support Problem.

When Dan Bongino announced he was leaving government and returning to media, the reaction on the Right was immediate and emotional.

Relief. Gratitude. Celebration.

Commentators spoke as if a prodigal son had returned. Some framed it as necessary because we had recently “lost voices.” Charlie Kirk was mentioned. Jordan Peterson’s health struggles were mentioned. The implication was clear: we need more conservative voices, and thank God one of the familiar ones is coming back.

I understand the instinct. I respect Dan. I’ve learned from Charlie. I’ve read and benefited from Jordan’s work. This isn’t a critique of any of them as people.

But moments like this reveal something uncomfortable about the conservative media ecosystem.

We don’t actually have a shortage of voices. We have a shortage of support for the people already doing the work outside the celebrity circle.

I’ve written about this before. Most directly in Silent Right! Holy Right!, where I argued that influential conservatives often speak passionately about the need for independent truth-tellers while quietly protecting their own circles when it comes to attention, money, and amplification. The spotlight stays where it’s always been. The risk gets outsourced to everyone else.

This week simply made that pattern visible again.

When a familiar name returns, attention floods in. When an independent writer spends months connecting dots, documenting incentives, and speaking plainly at personal cost, the response is often polite silence. Or no response at all.

That silence isn’t neutral. It has consequences.

For people doing this work outside the spotlight, those consequences are personal and immediate.

Over the past year, I’ve reached out privately to several conservative commentators. Not to demand anything. Not to complain. Only to ask for advice, perspective, or even a simple mention. I heard nothing back. Just crickets.

That experience isn’t unique to me. Many independent writers are living it right now.

The irony is that these same voices will then lament the movement's fragility, the lack of new thinkers, or the danger of relying on a handful of personalities. But fragility is not caused by a lack of talent. It’s caused by how attention and support are allocated.

We celebrate returns. We neglect builders.

We talk about needing more voices while ignoring the ones already speaking—and paying for it.

That includes real costs. Financial costs. Personal costs. The kind that don’t show up in follower counts or viral clips, but determine whether someone can keep doing the work at all.

None of this requires bad intentions. It’s an incentive problem.

Legacy media works this way. Hollywood works this way. Corporate institutions work this way. And increasingly, conservative media mirrors the same structure, just with different names and aesthetics.

If we’re serious about building a parallel media ecosystem, it cannot depend on celebrity permission slips. It has to be reader-backed. Distributed. Willing to sustain people before they’re famous, not only after they’ve been certified.

Otherwise, every time a prominent voice steps away, we’ll panic. And every time one returns, we’ll act relieved — while the builders quietly disappear.

I’m not asking for applause. I’m not asking for permission.

I’m pointing out a structural failure that will keep repeating unless it’s corrected.

Independent voices don’t disappear because they’re wrong. They disappear because they’re unsupported.

If we want more voices, the answer isn’t waiting for the prodigal sons to return.

It’s backing the people who are already here.

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Help Keep This Work Independent

If you’re wondering what a “boost” looks like in practice, it’s simple.

I think of this Substack as a kind of conservative survival guide. It gives people the history, data, and language they need when the Left throws out its usual accusations and talking points, and when the noise is designed to wear you down.

If my work this year has mattered to you, if it has given you clarity, arguments, perspective, or courage, or if you’ve ever thought, “More people need to see this,” then I’m asking for your help.

The support last week made a real difference, but it didn’t fully stabilize things yet.

Become a Paid Subscriber

Upgrading to paid, even at the lowest level, makes a real difference.
https://mrchr.is/help

Make a One-Time Contribution

If you prefer to give once, it helps more than you know.
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Join The Resistance Core

This is for people who feel this work is worth more than $8 a month or $80 a year and want to make a bigger statement. The page defaults to $1,200 a year, but you can set it to $500, $1,000, $2,000, or any amount that makes sense for you. Think of it as a once-a-year vote that says, “This needs to exist.”
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Thank you for reading this and for standing with me. And again, thank you to everyone who already stepped up last week.

If you want the deeper context behind today’s argument, these two pieces lay it out clearly:

Silent Right! Holy Right!
https://mrchrisarnell.com/p/silent-right-holy-right

A Moment of Honesty About This Work
https://mrchrisarnell.com/p/a-moment-of-honesty-about-this-work

I’ll keep writing either way. I’ve made that decision already. But if you believe that independent voices shouldn’t have to choose between telling the truth and staying afloat, you already understand what actually sustains this kind of work.