What's so 'cruel' about dressing up and having a good time?

New York magazine recently published a story called “The Cruel Kids’ Table.” The article was primarily about young right-wingers and their cultural impact as we head into Trump’s second term in 2025.

But the content of the story isn’t what interests me. Or at least not right now. It’s the cover photo that accompanies the story.

In 2005, it wasn’t difficult to pick out a young, educated conservative from a young, educated liberal based on their clothing and their grooming. It isn’t terribly difficult in 2025 either.

A group of young, attractive, well-dressed men and women. Smiling. Laughing. Drinking. Talking. Stark light exaggerating every detail. It feels like some kind of paparazzi photo. It’s an evocative shot, and there has been no shortage of commentary on it.

Online left-wingers claim the photo is ugly. The bright flash, blown-out faces, high contrast, and excited laughter are unflattering and make the individuals look menacing. If conservatives don't realize this, it's because they don't understand aesthetics.

Conservatives, on the other hand, just see a bunch of well-dressed young people having fun.

Anti-aesthetics

For the left, the best kind of aesthetics are those that make people look vulnerable or fatalistically defiant. And if vulnerable or fatalistically defiant isn’t possible because the individual is just too attractive and confident, wonky will have to do.

Weirdly slouching posture. Slightly depressed face. A rough, brutalist scene will be fine. Or a cutesy one can work too. Something that feels jarring and disorienting, weird and wacky. If pity is impossible, hidden irony is the next best thing. These are some aesthetic values of left-wingers today.

Confident happiness, without any ironic subtext, is just not something in their aesthetic lexicon.

Terminally online

The claim that the photo makes the subjects look nefarious presupposes that you think these types of people — young, attractive men and women wearing dresses and jackets — are the bad guys.

Of course terminally online left-wingers think this demographic are the bad guys. But it doesn’t mean you do. And you probably don’t, because you are not a terminally online, bitter left-winger.

Still, they might argue that all that set aside, the photography is still intended to make the subjects appear less attractive by an objective measure and conservatives don’t get that the joke is on them.

They don’t realize that no one cares about their silly games any more. We just don’t. Gritty photo, smoothed photo, blown-out with flash photo, underexposed photo, overexposed photo, digital camera, Instagram, Polaroid, Photoshop. Who cares? The people in the photo are living rent-free in the heads of hysterical left-wingers. Who’s winning?

A new ethos?

Some claim that the photo is an example of a new right ethos. Well dressed, young, confident, attractive, etc. The claim is that these things are markers of a new era. I like all these things. They are very good things. But they are not new things on the right.

I know that much of society has devolved into pajama-pant world, and the problem of perpetual flip-flop-wearing street urchins is a social disease that impacts both left-wingers and right-wingers alike.

But there has always been a bloc of young, well-dressed, confident, and attractive right-wingers. This cohort has been a conservative breeding ground for generations. 1985, 1995, 2005, 2015, and 2025. Take your pick. It’s not new.

Dressing well in a traditional sense of the word has been a cultural value among young, successful right-wingers for generations. In 2005, it wasn’t difficult to pick out a young, educated conservative from a young, educated liberal based on their clothing and their grooming. It isn’t terribly difficult in 2025 either.

It’s true that amid our cultural degeneration, there has been much neglect in terms of personal aesthetics. Some on the right have tried to distance themselves from, or downgrade the importance of, dressing well, instead joining left-wingers in a race to the bottom.

Exit slop world

But the truth is that dressing well never really went away.

Maybe you were asleep at the wheel and didn’t want to look like a “frat guy” or a “sorority girl,” a “bro” or a “bimbo.” Maybe you decided to cut off your nose to spite your face, forgetting that aesthetics matter. That’s okay. We all make mistakes. But that doesn’t mean everyone else was right there with you.

Angry left-wingers will always hate young right-wingers. Their screeching can be ignored. Those who are just now discovering the importance of personal aesthetics are very welcome. It’s a great sign, and I sincerely hope that we see a turn away from slop world and a return to positive aesthetic values.

The young, attractive, well-dressed right-wingers on New York magazine’s cover are not a new phenomenon. The photo is a restatement of an important truth. Clothes matter, beauty matters. Happiness and success are winners. It was true yesterday, it’s true today, and it will be true tomorrow.