TOPIC: The Alt-Right

www.cnn.com/2016/08/25/politics/hillary-clinton-alt-right-speech-donald-trump-kkk/

www.nytimes.com/2016/08/27/us/politics/alt-right-reaction.html

Call the 'Alt-Right' Movement What It Is: Racist as Hell

Calling these people anything less than vile racists is morally reprehensible and intellectually fraudulent


To live in modern-day America is to live in a country undeniably affected by racism – mysteriously, without any racists. For instance, even after calling Mexicans rapists, retweeting memes from white-supremacist message boards and saying Muslims should be banned from entering the country, Donald Trump says he's not racist. Former KKK leader David Duke – an authority on this subject, if there ever was one – agrees. Many of the Republican nominee's other fellow party members have also enforced the idea that he's not racist, even if they must contradict themselves in doing so:
.@RepPeteKing on Trump: I don't accept that he's a racist... what he said last week was racist t.co/fx6irUDNuA
— Morning Joe (@Morning_Joe) June 10, 2016
We live in a society in which damn near nothing can pass the bar for racism. At the same time the Republican Party has ushered in an era of socially regressive leaders like Ted Cruz, John Kasich and Carly Fiorina, we're increasingly finding ourselves stuck in debates over whether statements or people are "really" racist. At her Reno, Nevada, rally Thursday, Hillary Clinton aimed to put an end to that pointless train of thought by attaching Trump to a movement that's clearly and unrepentantly racist.
If you haven't seen this Hillary Clinton speech on the alt right and Trump, it's worth 30 minutes of your time: t.co/JxZell3B5c
— Joy Reid (@JoyAnnReid) August 26, 2016
Before Clinton took the Reno stage to calmly and thoughtfully dissect the so-called "Alt-Right" movement, it's fair to say much of America had never heard of it. Though the Alt-Right sounds like an innocuous keyboard shortcut, the movement is actually a collection of ultra-conservatives who lurk in dark corners of the Internet, like 4Chan and Reddit threads, where they often anonymously spew their hatred.
But what may be most important to understand about this clique is that they are so far removed from the already troubling "establishment" conservatives that they consider themselves an alternative to those who find coded racism, misogyny and xenophobia to be too weak and passive. Their war isn't simply on Democrats, or on multiculturalism, or on women – it's on other Republicans, especially those unwilling to embrace their prejudicial megaphones. They repeatedly refer to members of their own party as "cucks" – short for cuckold – because they believe establishment Republicans gain pleasure in sitting back and watching their country "get fucked."
This past spring, as Trump was racking up wins in primary states around the country, Breitbart published an extensive explanation of who makes up the Alt-Right. The article was co-written by Milo Yiannopoulos – the same Milo who, in a review of the new Ghostbusters movie, launched an all-out misogynoir attack on actor Leslie Jones that resulted in her being so viciously harassed by Milo and his 750,000 followers that Twitter banned him from the service for life. (A month later, Jones' personal website was hacked and nude photos of her were stolen.)
Recently, Trump made his ties to the Alt-Right movement much more explicit by hiring Steve Bannon, the former executive chairman of Breitbart – a longtime safe space for white-supremacist ideology – as campaign CEO. The Alt-Right movement's rise to prominence, by way of the Republican nominee's campaign, is why the movement matters, and why we can't afford to frame its members as anything less than a band of racist, sexist, anti-Semitic, white-nationalist xenophobes who spew dangerous bullshit while hiding behind their keyboards. The Alt-Right crowd is an ensemble of bigots who want us to understand their affinity for intolerance. Case in point: The Alt-Right group American Renaissance responded to Hillary Clinton's speech by writing, "There is a very broad overlap between the races, but they differ in average levels of intelligence and in other traits."
Now that the Trump campaign has put these people center stage in our national politics, the worst thing we can do is dither on about whether they – and he – pass the "officially" racist test. The Alt-right crowd believes in and endorses a racist ideology, and they have a presidential nominee who does the same. Calling these people anything less than vile racists would be morally reprehensible and intellectually fraudulent.

What You Need To Know About The Alt-Right Movement

The presidential candidates this week accused one another of racism and bigotry, with Hillary Clinton arguing that Donald Trump's rhetoric and policies are an invitation to the "alt-right" movement.

"This is not Conservatism as we have known it," the Democratic nominee said on Thursday during a speech in Reno, Nev. "This is not Republicanism as we have known it. These are racist ideas. These are race-baiting ideas. Anti-Muslim, anti-Immigrant, anti-women ideas –– all key tenets making up an emerging racist ideology known as the 'Alt-Right.'"

So what, exactly, is the "alt-right"?

The views of the alt-right are widely seen as anti-Semitic and white supremacist.

It is mostly an online movement that uses websites, chat boards, social media and memes to spread its message. (Remember the Star of David image that Trump received criticism for retweeting? That reportedly first appeared on an alt-right message board.)

Most of its members are young white men who see themselves first and foremost as champions of their own demographic. However, apart from their allegiance to their "tribe," as they call it, their greatest points of unity lie in what they are against: multiculturalism, immigration, feminism and, above all, political correctness.

'Breitbart News' Chairman Hired To Salvage Ailing Trump Campaign Aug. 18, 2016
"They see political correctness really as the greatest threat to their liberty," Nicole Hemmer, University of Virginia professor and author of a forthcoming book Messengers of the Right, explained on Morning Edition.

"So, they believe saying racist or anti-Semitic things—it's is not an act of hate, but an act of freedom," she said.

For that reason, as well as for fun and notoriety, alt-righters like to troll, prank and provoke.

One of their favorite slams is to label someone a "cukservative," loosely translated by the Daily Caller as a cuckolded conservative, or "race traitor" who has surrendered his masculinity.

How does the alt-right movement differ from what we think of as traditional conservatism?

The movement's origins are traced to many conservatives' opposition to the policies of President George W. Bush, especially the U.S. invasion of Iraq (alt-righters are strictly isolationist).

They are also suspicious of free-markets, a key tenet of conservatism, as they believe that business interests can often be in conflict with what they view as higher ideals – those of cultural preservation and homogeneity.

Two self-proclaimed leaders of the alt-right movement — Breitbart's Allum Bokhari and Milo Yiannopoulos – recently outlined a manifesto of sorts for what group believes and who their allies are and are not. It claimed that "beltway conservatives" hate alt-right adherents even more "than Democrats or loopy progressives."

They see themselves, rather, as "natural conservatives," with an "instinctive wariness of the foreign and the unfamiliar," Bokhari and Yiannopoulos wrote.

What is Trump's connection to the alt-right?

Last week, the GOP presidential nominee announced that Stephen Bannon, chairman of Breitbart News Network, which Bannon has called "the platform for the alt-right," would be his campaign's new chief executive.

"By putting Brietbart front and center in his campaign," said Hemmer, "Trump has elevated the alt-right."

But Hemmer suspects that Trump – and all but a small fraction of his supporters – do not pledge allegiance to the alt-right movement.

Clinton: Trump Is 'Taking Hate Groups Mainstream'
POLITICS
Clinton: Trump Is 'Taking Hate Groups Mainstream'
Yet, the movement has embraced Trump.

"I think they are attracted to Trump [and] see him as a vessel for getting their ideas out there," Hemmer said.

And Clinton is likely to continue drawing a link between Trump and the alt-right in the minds of voters.

"She's reminding those undecided voters that whatever the new moderate face of Donald Trump might be, there are the things he has said and here are the implications of the things he said and the people who he's brought into his campaign," said Hemmer.

How do alt-right leaders feel about Clinton's statements?

They seem to be loving the attention. As Michelle Goldberg wrote in Slate:

The white nationalist Richard Spencer was on vacation in Japan when he learned that Hillary Clinton was planning to give a speech about Donald Trump's ties to the so-called alt right, and he was thrilled. "It's hugely significant," Spencer told me by Skype from Kyoto. "When a presidential candidate—and indeed the presidential candidate who is leading in most polls—talks about your movement directly, I think you can safely say that you've made it."

Meet the the pillars of the white nationalist alt-right movement

he alt-right — a collection of organizations, individuals and internet memes that advocate against immigration and for white nationalism and are widely seen as racist — stepped onto the mainstream political stage on Thursday when Hillary Clinton name-checked it in a speech decrying racism and her opponent, Donald Trump.

The broadly defined alt-right and Donald Trump have mostly embraced one another throughout the 2016 presidential election. But as the movement has come into greater focus, its various threads have become more apparent.

SEE ALSO: The alt-right has had its moment in the sun. Now what?

Like all movements, the alt-right umbrella encompasses several ideologies and personalities. That said, we explored some of the more prominent adherents, below.

Jared Taylor
Taylor has in many ways led the drive for respectability among white nationalists in the United States.

Equipped with a philosophy degree from Yale University he earned in 1973, Taylor has written several books on race — White Identity: Racial Consciousness for the 21st Century is one — and runs the racist online publican American Renaissance.

Taylor's ideal world, according to him, involves members of different races deciding to live among each other and going about their separate lives.

“This should be a voluntary thing," he told Mashable. "I’m not deporting people, I’m not kicking people out.”

A white nationalist, he abhors the term "white supremacist," saying it;s often used to "discredit" white people.

But Taylor has been associated with the white supremacist organization, Council of Conservative Citizens, and wrote The Color of Crime in an attempt to show that black people are more prone to crime than white people. He also described black people as "barbaric" following Hurricane Katrina.

Andrew Anglin
If Taylor's brand of white nationalism is commonly referred to as "dressed up" white supremacism, then it may make sense to think of Anglin's alt-right world as the "dressed down" millennial version.

Today on the David Duke Radio Show AltRight hero Andrew Anglin 10am Central #LASen #unbroken t.co/K6Nv1ATarZ pic.twitter.com/8mglmBCvzD

— David Duke (@DrDavidDuke) August 15, 2016

The Southern Poverty Law Center defines many within the alt-right movement as "white nationalists," but they label Anglin a neo-Nazi, and it doesn't take long to understand why.

Anglin runs The Daily Stormer, whose name comes from the Nazi publication "Der Stürmer." And whereas Taylor is not known as anti-Semitic, Anglin's website has a vertical entitled "Jewish Problem," and he's said he's looking forward to the day that a statue of Hitler is erected in Berlin.

His website comes with a disclaimer that that it does not stand for violence and will not tolerate violent rhetoric in comments, yet it has a vertical called "Race War" that invites plenty of as-yet unchecked violent rhetoric.

Anglin has cultivated a millennial following through racist, crude and insulting language/memes that he once described as "extremely unhelpful."

Matthew Heimbach
Matthew Heimbach, 25, became a known alt-right entity during his time at Towson University, in Maryland, where he founded the White Student Union and a group called Youth for Western Civilization.

Matthew Heimbach of the Traditionalist Worker Party (the group responsible for a violent skirmish last month with a… pic.twitter.com/ametH4Y3oX

— Jeff (@pnwsocialists) July 21, 2016

Heimbach denounced violence and expressed support for black nationalism as much as white nationalism in a 2015 Al Jazeera America profile. But it seems his words were either geared to veil his actual beliefs, or that he's since begun to move away from his nonviolent rhetoric.

Heimbach made headlines again earlier this year when he was seen shoving a black woman protesting at a Trump rally. He's also hung out with the Aryan Terror Brigade, a group the SPLC describes as "violent," and which has taken to more anti-Semitic rhetoric.

Richard Spencer
Spencer has been described as "arguably the father" of the alt-right.

He founded a web magazine called Alternative Right in 2010 and currently heads up the National Policy Institute, a think tank that is a pillar of "academic racism."

Spencer puts a lot of emphasis on looking professional and prides himself on his academic background (via the University of Virginia and the University of Chicago). The SPLC describes him as a "radical white separatist."

He recently made a trip to Ohio for the Republican National Convention, where he could be found holding a sign that said, "Wanna talk to a racist?"

"Wanna talk to a racist?” In photos: Day 2 of the #GOPconvention #RNCinCLE t.co/SsTtmYOHpu pic.twitter.com/uuby0cHPbH

— POLITICO Magazine (@POLITICOMag) July 20, 2016

Peter Brimelow
Brimelow, born in 1947, is from the United Kingdom and is vehemently against non-white immigration to the U.S.

Peter Brimelow: "The Trump Tsunami and the Future of the American Nation" t.co/sHn2jshqal #TrumpTrain #Tru… pic.twitter.com/bVntt4T58N

— King Robbo (@realkingrobbo) May 30, 2016

He gained prominence in anti-immigration circles thanks to his racist, xenophobic, anti-immigration book Alien Nation, published in 1995.

Four years later, he started the Center for American Unity, which publishes vdare.com, an anti-immigration site named for Virginia Dare, the first white English person born in what would become the U.S.

Greg Johnson
Johnson edits one of the pillars of alt-right publishing: Counter-Currents.

Like Spencer, Taylor and others, he has said that Trump and the alt-right are not truly linked.

He is a proponent of ethno-nationalism, and has said he is against "the Jewish diaspora in the United States and other white societies."

Mike Enoch
Enoch runs yet another popular alt-right publication, The Right Stuff.

The Right Stuff is starkly against mainstream American conservatism, and, as it says on its "About Us" page, enjoys "severely rustling jimmies among the childish and regressive left-wing."

The "Alt-Right" just want the right to shit on everybody else's feels, while having their own protected.

Well, the "Alt-Right" are really the /pol/ branch of 4chan, with a bit of /b/ thrown into the mix, and are just out to mock everything that is "established," but they have a shit-fit and start doxxing(and worse) everyone who has a go back at them.

Have you spent any time on/pol/? If not, pay a visit and you'll see where most of the "Let's see everything burn and vote for Trump" crowd are coming from.

If you understood all the words/terms used, do you accept that 4chan is the main source of the Alt-Right?

Do you know what some /b/ and /pol/tards are capable of if their pwecious feels are hurt?

Do you see how a small minority are having a lot of fun trolling a much larger majority?

If you can see all that you should be able to get the drift of my comments.