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For the publication based in the United States, see Alternative Right.
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The alt-right is a segment of right-wing ideologies[1] presented as an alternative to mainstream conservatism in the politics of the United States.[1] The alt-right has been described as a movement unified by support for Republican Presidential candidate Donald Trump,[2][3][4] as well as opposition to multiculturalism and immigration.[5]

There is no official ideology associated with the alt-right, but various sources have linked it to white nationalism,[6][7] white supremacism[2][5][8] and antisemitism.[2][5][9] The alt-right has also been associated with policies such as right-wing populism,[6][10] libertarianism,[11][12] nativism[13] and the neoreactionary movement.[8][14]

The alt-right has been said to be a largely online movement and internet memes are widely used to advance or express their beliefs, often on websites such as 4chan; much of the coverage of the alt-right has focused on the memes it has produced.[2][8][9][15][16][17]

Etymology

In November 2008, Paul Gottfried addressed the H. L. Mencken Club about what he called "the alternative right".[18][19] In 2009, two more posts at Taki's Magazine, by Patrick J. Ford and Jack Hunter, further discussed the alternative right.[20][21] The term's modern usage, however, is most commonly attributed to white nationalist and self-described "identitarian" Richard B. Spencer, president of the National Policy Institute and founder of Alternative Right.[6][22]

Beliefs

The alt-right lacks an official ideology, and has been described as an "amorphous conservative movement"[23] by Mic, and as "loosely assembled"[6] by The New Yorker. Various sources have stated the alt-right as being composed of elements of white nationalism,[5][7] white supremacism[2][5][8] and antisemitism.[2][5][9] The alt-right has also been linked with policies such as right-wing populism,[6][10] libertarianism,[11][12] nativism[13] and the neoreactionary movement.[1][12][14]

Jeet Heer of The New Republic, discussing the origins of support for Donald Trump, identifies the alt-right as having ideological origins among paleoconservatives, particularly when it comes to restricting immigration and supporting a more openly nationalistic foreign policy.[24] Newsday columnist Cathy Young also notes the alt-right's strong opposition to both legal and illegal immigration, and their hard-line stance on the European migrant crisis.[5] Roberto Tracinski of The Federalist states that the alt-right opposes miscegenation and advocates "hard-core" collectivism as well as tribalism.[25]

Commonalities shared across the otherwise loosely defined alt-right include a disdain for mainstream politics and strong support for Donald Trump's presidential campaign.[3][4]

Use of memes

The alt-right's use of internet memes to advance or express their beliefs, often on websites such as 4chan,[17] has been widely reported.[2][8][9][15][16] Adherents of the ideology have, for instance, been credited for originating the term cuckservative, a portmanteau of cuckold and conservative.[1][9][26] Another example is triple parentheses or "echoes," an antisemitic shorthand used to identify and target Jews online, which originated on the blog The Right Stuff.[2][7][9][23] The prevalence of memes in alt-right circles has lead some commentators to doubt whether the alt-right itself is a serious movement rather than just an alternative way to express traditionally conservative beliefs.[6][8][9]

Reaction

Although some conservatives have welcomed the alt-right, others on the mainstream right and left have criticized the movement as racist or hateful,[5][27] particularly given the alt-right's overt hostility towards mainstream conservatism and the Republican Party in general.[1]

David A. French called alt-right proponents "wanna-be fascists" and bemoaned their entry into the national political conversation.[28]

Benjamin Welton of the The Weekly Standard described the group as a "highly heterogeneous force" that refuses to "concede the moral high ground to the left."[1]

Benjamin Wallace-Wells, writing for The New Yorker, described it as a "loosely assembled far-right movement," but said that its differences from the conventional right-wing in American politics was more a matter of style than substance, saying that "One way to understand the alt-right is not as a movement but as a collective experiment in identity, in the same way that many people use anonymity on the Internet to test more extreme versions of themselves."[6]

Professor George Hawley of the University of Alabama suggested that the alt-right may pose a greater threat to progressivism than the mainstream conservative movement.[29]

Commentary

Jared Taylor (pictured) has been mentioned as an intellectual representative of the alt-right.[30]

Ian Tuttle, writing in National Review, states that "The Alt-Right has evangelized over the last several months primarily via a racist and antisemitic online presence. But for Allum Bokhari and Milo Yiannopoulos, the Alt-Right consists of fun-loving provocateurs, valiant defenders of Western civilization, daring intellectuals—and a handful of neo-Nazis keen on a Final Solution 2.0, but there are only a few of them, and nobody likes them anyways."[30] Bokhari and Yiannopoulos describe Jared Taylor, founder of American Renaissance, and Richard B. Spencer, founder of Alternative Right, as representative of intellectuals in the alt-right.[30][31] Cathy Young, writing for The Federalist, states that a website named RadixJournal replaced the Alternative Right website, and describes a RadixJournal article on abortion which proclaimed that the pro-life position is "'dysgenic,' since it encourages breeding by 'the least intelligent and responsible' women."[32]

Cathy Young, writing in Newsday, called the alt-right "a nest of anti-Semitism" inhabited by "white supremacists" who regularly use "repulsive bigotry".[5] Likewise, Chris Hayes on All In with Chris Hayes described alt-right as a euphemistic term for "essentially modern day white supremacy."[33] Similarly, BuzzFeed reporter Rosie Gray describes the alt-right as "white supremacy perfectly tailored for our times," saying that it uses "aggressive rhetoric and outright racial and anti-Semitic slurs," and notes that it has "more in common with European far-right movements than American ones."[34] Yishai Schwartz, writing for Haaretz, described the alt-right as "vitriolically anti-Semitic," saying that "The 'alternative' that the alt-right presents is, in large part, an alternative to acceptance of Jews," and warned that it must be taken seriously as a threat.[12]

Some sources have connected the alt-right and Gamergate in multiple ways, such as Milo Yiannopoulos' supportive articles on Breitbart.[26][31][32] According to the Southern Poverty Law Center, Breitbart has become the dominant outlet for alt-right views.[35]

See also

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f Welton, Benjamin (2016-02-01). "What, Exactly, is the 'Alternative Right?'". The Weekly Standard. Retrieved 2016-02-05.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h Ohlheiser, Abby (June 3, 2016). "Anti-Semitic Trump supporters made a giant list of people to target with a racist meme". New York Times.
  3. ^ a b Betsy Woodruff. "Rush Limbaugh's Favorite New White-Power Group". The Daily Beast. Retrieved 2016-02-05.
  4. ^ a b Oliver Darcy (2016-01-20). "GOP Strategist Under Fire After Giving This Vulgar Description of Trump's 'Alt-Right' Fans on MSNBC | Video". TheBlaze.com. Retrieved 2016-02-05.
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i Cathy Young (2016-01-25). "Donald Trump's rant against political correctness is comfort food to racists". Newsday. Retrieved 2016-02-05.
  6. ^ a b c d e f g Wallace-Wells, Benjamin (May 5, 2016). "Is the Alt-Right for real?". The New Yorker.
  7. ^ a b c Yglesias, Matthew (June 6, 2016). "The (((echo))), explained". Vox.
  8. ^ a b c d e f Dylan Matthews (April 18, 2016). "The alt-right is more than warmed-over white supremacy. It's that, but way way weirder". VOX. Retrieved June 7, 2016.
  9. ^ a b c d e f g Hess, Amanda (June 10, 2016). "For the Alt-Right, the Message Is in the Punctuation". New York Times.
  10. ^ a b Shapiro, Ben. "The Conservative Intellectual Movement in America: Then and Now". National Review.
  11. ^ a b Woolf, Nicky. "The first godless US election". New Statesman.
  12. ^ a b c d Schwartz, Yishai (May 31, 2016). "Banal, Incoherent, anti-Semitic and pro-Trump: Why We Should Take the Alt-right Seriously". Haaretz.
  13. ^ a b "An Open Letter to Mitt Romney". weeklystandard.com.
  14. ^ a b "Colby Cosh:At some point, people will tire of being urged to progress while being told that none has ever happened". nationalpost.com.
  15. ^ a b Jesse Singal (May 26, 2016). "Explaining Ben Shapiro's Messy, Ethnic-Slur-Laden Breakup With Breitbart". NYMag. Retrieved July 14, 2016.
  16. ^ a b Jake Kivanç (June 15, 2016). "Nero, Nazis, and the New Far Right: The Phenomena of the Professional Troll". Vice. Retrieved July 14, 2016.
  17. ^ a b Andrews, Travis (May 25, 2016). "'Alt-right' white supremacists have chosen Taylor Swift as their 'Aryan goddess' icon, through no fault of her own". Washington Post.
  18. ^ Gottfried, Paul (2016-01-22). "The Decline and Rise of the Alternative Right -". The Unz Review. Unz.com. Retrieved 2016-02-05.
  19. ^ Gottfried, Paul (December 1, 2008). "The Decline and Rise of the Alternative Right". Taki's Magazine.
  20. ^ Theodoracopulos, Taki (2009-07-27). "Economism in the Alt Right". Taki's Magazine. Retrieved 2016-02-05.
  21. ^ Hunter, Jack (2009-11-03). "Whither the Alternative Right?". Taki's Magazine. Retrieved 2016-02-05.
  22. ^ Larry Keller (2010-03-15). "Paleocon Starts New Extreme-Right Magazine | Southern Poverty Law Center". Splcenter.org. Retrieved 2016-02-05.
  23. ^ a b "(((Echoes))), Exposed: The Secret Symbol Neo-Nazis Use to Target Jews Online". mic.com.
  24. ^ Heer, Jeet (2016-01-22). "National Review Fails to Kill Its Monster". New Republic.
  25. ^ Tracinski, Robert (April 4, 2016). "Yes, the Alt-Right Are Just a Bunch of Racists". The Federalist. Retrieved 23 July 2016.
  26. ^ a b Weigel, David. "'Cuckservative' – the conservative insult of the month, explained". The Washington Post.
  27. ^ Robert Tracinski. "Yes, The Alt-Right Are Just a Bunch of Racists". The Federalist. Retrieved April 4, 2016.
  28. ^ French, David (2016-01-26). "Donald Trump & Alt-Right's Rise - Not Conservatives Fault". National Review. Retrieved 2016-02-05.
  29. ^ George Hawley (25 January 2016). Right-Wing Critics of American Conservatism. University Press of Kansas. p. 69. ISBN 978-0-7006-2193-4.
  30. ^ a b c Tuttle, Ian. "The Racist Moral Rot at the Heart of the Alt-Right". The National Review. Retrieved 18 April 2016.
  31. ^ a b "An Establishment Conservative's Guide To The Alt-Right". Breitbart. March 29, 2016. Retrieved June 9, 2016.
  32. ^ a b Cathy Young. "You Can't Whitewash The Alt-Right's Bigotry". The Federalist. Retrieved June 9, 2016.
  33. ^ "All In with Chris Hayes, Transcript 12/9/2015". MSNBC. MSNBC. December 9, 2015.
  34. ^ Gray, Rosie (2015-07-07). "How 2015 Fueled The Rise Of The Freewheeling, White Nationalist Alt Right Movement - BuzzFeed News". Buzzfeed. Retrieved 2016-02-05.
  35. ^ Piggott, Stephen. "Is Breitbart.com Becoming the Media Arm of the 'Alt-Right'?". splcenter.org. Southern Poverty Law Center. Retrieved 2 May 2016.
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