John Guardiano wrote a pointed blog post against what he calls “young hipster cons” or young dissident conservatives describing them as whiners:
You, young hipster cons  and yeah, I’m talking to you, Dougherty; and I’m talking to you, Friedersdorf ; and probably you, too, Douthat  are fortunate to be living at a time in history when the tools of mass communication are available to literally every American citizen and a great many people the world over  so you have no excuses for not speaking out. In fact, you have a moral and intellectual obligation to make your voice heard.
So stop whining and do something! Build a website and join the fray. Demand a seat at the political, intellectual, and policy table. Marshall your arguments and organize like-minded writers and thinkers. Pick a fight and come out swinging. Recall the stirring example set by a young William F. Buckley, Jr. at a time and place when the opportunities for bright young conservatives were far fewer and far less significant than they are today.
Conor Friedersdorf, one the so-called hipster cons, responds and boy is he mad:
Defending against attacks like this is tedious and awful, especially when you’re their object. Recall what it is like to write a college essay or get asked in a job interview, “What’s your best quality?†Readers who are neither corporate lawyers nor I-bankers surely understand how uncomfortable it can be when a task demands a lengthy, favorable assessment of yourself. But I’ve grown terribly tired of attacks on so-called dissident conservatives that utterly misunderstand or misrepresent the subject at hand as much as they mislead about our output. I’m inspired by the vim and vigor of Mr. Dougherty’s excellent piece in The Awl, and my one-time professor Katie Roiphe always counseled that I shouldn’t shy away from polemical writing when the occasion demands it. So brace yourself, Mr. Guardiano, for a rebuttal that picks a fight, forgives your negligent ignorance only because it seems earnestly argued, and ruthlessly cleaves the corrupt wings of movement conservatism with the coldest, bluntest shears at hand.
Read both essays. My money is on Friedersdorf, since my opinions come closest to mine and the fact that Guardiano seemed blind to the problems faced in modern American conservatism.
Pull up a chair and get some popcorn. This is gonna be a good fight.
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