The above-mentioned leaders and celebrities of the
alt-Right, along with a motley assortment of knuckle draggers from the National Socialist Movement, the Ku Klux Klan, the Traditionalist Workers Party, Vanguard America, and other groups that are virulently racist and/or openly neo-Nazi, came together at the much-publicized "Unite the Right" rally on August 12.
Joseph Bernstein, who carried out the BuzzFeed investigation, said the documents showed, "Breitbart does more than tolerate the most hate-filled, racist voices of the
alt-right. It thrives on them, fueling and being fueled by some of the most toxic beliefs on the political spectrum --and clearing the way for them to enter the American mainstream."
This piece had a lot of consequences for the
alt-right. One, Cantwell is in jail as are, I think, four other protesters.
The neologism "
alt-right" (short for "alternative right") was coined by white nationalist Richard B.
Angela Nagle's short, intelligent book, Kill All Normies: Online Culture Wars from 4Chan and Tumblr to Trump and the
Alt-Right, is the story of how these "teenage gamers, pseudonymous swastika-posting anime lovers, ironic South Park conservatives, anti-feminist pranksters, nerdish harassers, and meme-making trolls" had until recently been gaining so much cultural, political, and ideological momentum.
By the same token there isn't a moral equivalency in philosophy, but there is an escalating arms race about extremists on different sides, of which I think
alt-right are now at the forefront.
There is at present a lively and important debate on how to defy the 'normalisation' of the
alt-right, but it is important here to tackle not simply the way it is branded but also the ideological and material underpinnings of this process.
TERRORISM IN THE
ALT-RIGHT WORLD VIEW World view refers to a complex set of perceptions, attitudes, beliefs, values and motivations that characterise how an individual or a group of people interpret the world and their own existence.
In the end, the Women's March on Washington succeeded as a massive shout-out against Trump and the
alt-right's anti-immigrant, racist and misogynist messages.
The attacks may have seemed like just a fleeting, perverse twist on RINO ("Republican in name only"), but in fact they were something far more ominous--the stirrings of a loosely knit extremist movement soon more widely known as the "
alt-right." Thanks to Trump's demagogic campaign--throughout which he would circulate bigoted memes to his millions of Twitter followers--the
alt-right now had an opportunity to inject racism, misogyny, and xenophobia into mainstream American politics.
Twenty-one years ago I was assigned by Commentary to write about Jared Taylor--today known as one of the eminences of the "
alt-right." Taylor had written a grim book on American race relations, Paved With Good Intentions, which had been published by a mainstream house and was widely, if critically, reviewed.
Jewish stereotypes were resurrected by the
alt-right, an amorphous subset of the right steeped in white ethno-nationalistic anger.
"They are abusing the image of a cartoon character, one that might at first seem appealing, to harass and spread hatred on social media." The
Alt-Right movement, a disparate group of right-wing social media users, has repeatedly shared Pepe re-workings on social media.
Ann Coulter was
alt-right before the
alt-right was a thing.
