I’m Christopher F. Rufo: writer, filmmaker, and activist.
I’ve launched this Substack as the hub for all of my work on critical race theory, gender ideology, institutional capture, and social decay. As a subscriber, you’ll be the first to see new journalism, videos, reports, and activism campaigns. In addition, I’ll be actively engaging with readers in the comments—so make sure to subscribe and share your thoughts. To manage your subscription, click here.
The Mission
My work is organized around a simple mission: to challenge and then overthrow the left-wing ideological regime that has dominated American life for a generation.
During the 1970s and 1980s, conservative intellectuals started a revolution, pioneering free-market economics and successfully implementing those ideas during the Reagan boom. Today, however, we are faced with a new challenge: to defeat an ascendant activist class that has sabotaged America’s institutions with a toxic combination of socialist economics, cultural chaos, and identity politics.
The results speak for themselves: over the past decade, critical race theory and gender ideology have captured America’s universities, schools, and government agencies, and homelessness, addiction, crime, and disorder have plagued America’s cities. The progressive political class insists that it’s all about “diversity, equity, and inclusion” but, as my research has revealed, these policies have done nothing but wreak havoc on American communities.
Unfortunately, over the past thirty years, conservatives have retreated on culture issues and given up on America’s cities, arguing that they’re beyond repair. I disagree. With my new reporting, videos, and activism, I hope to help lay the groundwork for challenging the rising activist class and create a new intellectual foundation for a free, creative, family-oriented society that puts the interests of the common citizen above those of the bureaucratic class.
While some might despair at the political Left’s dominance of America’s prestige institutions, I take this institutional disadvantage as a reason for hope—there is nowhere to go but up.
My foundational belief is simple: the antidote to cultural chaos is moral courage. In recent years, a new conservative movement has challenged left-wing orthodoxy and rallied the nation to defeat it in state legislatures and local school boards. The driving ambition of this publication is to launch a political North Star above the repressive culture of the bureaucratic class and establish a renewed moral language for the conservative movement.
The timeless principles of the American Revolution are under assault. The fight to protect, restore, and reanimate them begins now.
Paid Subscribers
I’m blessed to have thousands of paid subscribers on this platform. This support is essential for producing new work and building my small team, which includes a producer, video editor, graphic designer, and research assistant.
Every month, I write a report for paid subscribers outlining what we’ve accomplished and how our work is shaping the national conversation. In addition, as we build out this platform, I will begin offering exclusive content to paid subscribers, including special stories, conversations, open threads, and behind-the-scenes material.
More personally, this Substack provides a stable and independent source of income for my family of five. My wife Suphatra had a successful career at companies such as Microsoft and Amazon, but as we planned for having a third child and my political work became more prominent, we made the decision for her to be home. We’re now all-in on working for the good of the country.
If you appreciate what I do, I hope you will become a paid subscriber, too. You’ll be supporting not only great content, but concrete political victories that will help return our country to the principles of “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”
Praise for My Work
“Christopher Rufo is in fact one of the most effective journalists and filmmakers in the country.” -Tucker Carlson
“The most important and effective conservative activist in the country.” -Bari Weiss
“International-class troublemaker and policy advisor on the culture war.” -Dr. Jordan Peterson
“Christopher Rufo … has done more than anybody else in our country on exposing CRT.” -Governor Ron DeSantis
“Christopher Rufo has had an extremely significant impact on our political discourse.” -Glenn Greenwald
“One of the most important journalists in the country.” -Ben Shapiro
“The country’s pre-eminent critic of critical race theory.” -New York Times
“The most important intellectual entrepreneur on the political right today.” -Vox
“One of the most gifted conservative polemicists of his generation” -The Atlantic
“An American hero.” -Steve Bannon
Biography
I’m a Senior Fellow of the Manhattan Institute, Contributing Editor of City Journal, and founder of American Studio, a nonprofit organization dedicated to creating new work about the American experience.
In the first phase of my career, I directed four documentaries for PBS, Netflix, and international television, including America Lost, which tells the story of three “forgotten American cities.”
In recent years, I have led the fight against critical race theory and gender ideology in American institutions. My research and activism have inspired a presidential order and legislation in more than twenty states, where I have worked closely with conservative governors and lawmakers to craft successful public policy. I have also authored definitive research and reporting on poverty, homelessness, addiction, and mental illness in America’s cities.
My work has been featured in the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Washington Post, New Yorker, NPR, CNN, MSNBC, and Fox News, where I have become a regular guest on Tucker Carlson Tonight and other programs. I have received numerous accolades, including the Conservative Mind Award, the Barbara Olson Award for Excellence and Independence in Journalism, and a distinguished fellowship at Hillsdale College.
I hold a BSFS magna cum laude from Georgetown and an ALM with Dean’s List recognition from Harvard. I live in the Pacific Northwest with my wife and three sons.
