Alt-right
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About
The Alt-right refers to a loosely defined segment of right-wing conservative principles, as well as the faction of politicians and constituents, often characterized as being centered around white nationalism and a vehement opposition to multiculturalism, feminism, socialism and identity politics in the United States.[1] Presented as an alternative to mainstream American conservatism, the alt-right is known for its vocal support for 2016 Republican Presidential candidate Donald Trump, and use of internet memes on political discussion boards like 4chan's /pol/ and Reddit's /r/The_Donald.
History
One of the earliest known uses of the term "alternative right" in the context of anti-establishment conservatism was in an address delivered by American political philosopher Paul Gottfried to the H.L. Mencken Club's Annual Meeting titled "The Decline and Rise of the Alternative Right."[2] In April 2010, the blog Alternative Right[6] was launched by white nationalists Richard Spencer and Colin Liddell, which ran for several years until it was shutdown in 2013.
Hillary Clinton's Speech
On August 25th, 2016, Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton delivered a speech criticizing Donald Trump for embracing radical segments of the right-wing, while blasting the alt-right as an "emerging racist ideology."
"The de facto merger between Breitbart and the Trump campaign represents a landmark achievement for the alt-right. A fringe element has effectively taken over the Republican Party."
During Clinton's address, a /pol/[7] user posted a thread revealing that he is a member of the audience at the event, to which another user suggested the OP to yell "Pepe" as to interrupt her speech. In the YouTube livestream (shown above), a man off the screen can be heard yelling "Pepe!" at approximately 56 minutes in.
Online Reactions
That day, the hashtag #AltRightMeans[8] began trending on Twitter, initially circulated by critics of the political movement (shown below, left). Hours later, the hashtag was largely taken over by alt-right sympathizers (shown below, right).
On August 31st, The Rubin Report posted a video responding to the speech titled "What is the Alt Right?", which described the alt-right as an "amorphous" group who use internet memes to troll the political establishment (shown below, left). On September 8th, the CNBC YouTube channel uploaded an interview in which Milo Yiannopoulos criticized Clinton's speech, arguing that the alt-right was not a bigoted movement but rather a backlash against identity politics (shown below, right).
Online Presence
On March 2nd, 2010, the /r/altright subreddit was launched for discussions about alt-right politics.[17] On September 4th, 2015, YouTuber Walt Bismarck posted a parody music video of the song "Under the Sea" from the Disney animated film The Little Mermaid titled "On the Alt Right" (shown below, left). On October 31st, YouTuber ramzpaul posted a video titled "We are the Alt Right" (shown below, right).
On March 23rd, 2016, YouTuber Sargon of Akkad posted a video titled "An Honest Look at the Alt Right" (shown below).
Reception
On December 27th, 2015, BuzzFeed[3] published an article which identified the alt-right as a "white nationalist" movement. On January 21st, 2016, manosphere blogger
Roosh V published an article on his blog Return of Kings[5] titled "5 Serious Problems With The Alt Right Movement." On March 29th, Breitbart[4] published an article by staff writers Allum Bokhari and Milo Yiannopoulos titled "An Establishment Conservative's Guide to the Alt-Right," which described different segments within the alt-right subculture.
Glenn Beck Interview
On November 15th, 2016, CNN aired a segment on the alt-right, in which anchor Anderson Cooper discussed the movement with political commentator Glenn Beck (shown below). During the interview, Beck described the alt-right as "terrifying."
Twitter Crackdown
On November 15th, 2016, Twitter suspended several accounts, including the white nationalist National Policy Institute founder Richard Spencer, WeSearchr co-founder Pax Dicksinon and anonymous internet personalities Ricky Vaughn and John Rivers. Additionally, the accounts for the National Policy Institute, its online magazine Radix Journal and Spencer's book publishing Washington Summit Publishers were suspended from the site as well. That day, the NPI / Radix YouTube channel uploaded a video in which Spencer defended himself, claiming he did not break the site's rules and was "purged" from the site for his beliefs an "act of corporate Stalinism" (shown below).
The following day, several posts about the crackdown reached the front page of the /r/The_Donald,[9] /r/technology[10] and /r/news[11] subreddits. Also on November 16th, The Atlantic[16] published an op-ed by senior editor David Frum titled "Suspending Alt-Right Twitter Accounts Doesn't Fix Anything," which criticized the bans as biased form of censorship. In the coming days, other news sites published articles about the Twitter suspensions, including USA Today,[18] Reuters,[19] and The Daily Caller.[20]
Reddit Crackdown
On November 28th, 2016, the news site GotNews[23] posted screenshots of a leaked conversation between Reddit admin Chtorrr and /r/altright moderator MarcusCamillius, in which the admin warned the community could face removal for "hate speech" but did not provide examples (shown below).
![Ir/altright About hate speech expand all collapse all ] from Chtorrr [A] to /r/altright sent an hour ago Hey there, We've been made aware of a few issues in your subreddit, and wanted to bring them to your attention before they become a larger issue that we need to take further action on While we have no problem being a home for political speech, hate speech is another matter. We need you to keep hate speech from appearing in your subreddit, which means removing any that is currently here (in posts as well as your sidebar), and being proactive in not allowing hate speech to be used here in the future We also need you to not alter your active user count in your sidebar. It's intentionally misleading to visitors of your sub, and it's not really acting in good faith We know you will disagree with this. However, we want to work with you so that your sub can be a gathering place that is not under a threat of quarantine. We want to have aoints represented on reddit, but those viewpoints must also adhere to our site wide rules and guidelines. Fostering hate speech in your community is grounds for a quarantine permalink spam remove deport block user mute user mark unread reply from MarcusCamillius [M] via /r/altright to Chtorrr [A] sent 56 minutes ago What qualifies as hate speech? permalink spam remove deport block user mark unread reply from GreatApeNiggy [M] via /r/altright to Chtorrr [A] sent 53 minutes ago I will work on the CSS when I get home. In the meantime, could you provide examples of hate speech that we should be aware of? Especially what you find concerning in the sidebar? I would like to point out our filter removes slurs in an attempt to comply with the rules. Is there anything you feel we should add to the filter? We'll definitely do what we can to comply with the rules but would like some guidance permalink spam remove deport block user mark unread reply from Via Alpina [M] via /r/altright to GreatApeNiggy [M] sent 51 minutes ago I changed the css permalink spam remove deport block user mark unread reply from Chtorrr [A] via /r/altright to GreatApeNiggy [M] sent 50 minutes ago Thank you for agreeing to take steps to fix the CSS I believe that all of you understand what hate speech is and are capable of enforce rules against it so your community can continue to exist. If any of you are not capable of recognizing hate speech I recommend that you not moderate this community permalink spam remove deport block user mute user mark unread reply ] from Chtorrr [A] via /r/altright to ViaAlpina [M] sent 50 minutes ago Thank you permalink spam remove deport block user mute user mark unread reply](https://i.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/newsfeed/001/218/347/f8f.png "/r/AltRight Mod Conversation with Admin Chtorrr")
On February 1st, 2017, Reddit shutdown the /r/altright and /r/alternativeright subreddits. In a statement to The Independent,[21] Reddit suggested that the communities were suspended for posting "content that harasses or invites harassment":
"We are very clear in our site terms of service that posting of personal information can get users banned from Reddit and we ask our communities not to post content that harasses or invites harassment."
That same day, The Verge reported on speculation that the subreddits were banned for doxing the man who was recorded punching Richard Spencer. Additionally, the article noted that many /r/altright subscribers had moved to the Reddit clone site Voat.[24] In the coming days, several other sites published articles about the controversial ban, including HeatStreet,[22] Cnet,[25] Wired,[26] Next Web[27] and The Daily Dot.[28]
Associated Press Rules
On August 16th, 2017, the Associated Press added "anti-Semitism" to their definition of "alt-right," along with a rule to avoid using the term "because it is meant as a euphemism to disguise racist aims." The updates were added to provide rules for describing extremist demonstrators who attended the 2017 United the Right Rally in Charlottesville, Virginia.[29]
Notable Figures
Donald Trump
2016 Republican Presidential candidate Donald Trump is often praised by the alt-right for being an anti-establishment conservative politician or "Washington outsider."
Milo Yiannopoulos
British journalist Milo Yiannopoulos is often grouped with the alt right, mostly for his support of Donald Trump's presidency and for being an outspoken critic of third-wave feminism. On July 19th, 2016, Twitter suspended Yiannopoulos’ account following a campaign that Twitter alleges he led to tweet racist and sexist things towards Ghostbusters actress Leslie Jones.
Steve Bannon
Executive chairman of Breitbart News Steve Bannon has been accused of courting white supremacists within the alt-right by former Breitbart editor Ben Shapiro.[14] On August 17th, 2016, he was appointed to the position of Chief Executive in Donald Trump’s 2016 United States Presidential Election campaign. On November 13th, 2016, President-elect Donald Trump announced Breitbart executive chairman Steve Bannon would be serving as his Chief Strategist and senior adviser
Richard Spencer
American white nationalist Richard Spencer is the founder of the think tank National Policy Institute who describes himself as an "identitarian,"[12] and has been labeled "a leader of white supremacist circles" by the Anti-Defamation League.[13] According to its website,[15] the National Policy Institute is "dedicated to the heritage, identity, and future of people of European descent in the United States."
Related Memes
Cuckservative
Cuckservative, a portmanteau of cuck (or cuckold) and conservative, is a pejorative political ephitet often used by the alt-right when referring to mainstream conservatives that they accuse of being tolerant or open-minded towards some or all aspects of liberal values.
Search Interest
External References
[1] Wikipedia – paleoconservatism
[2] Unz – The Decline and Rise of the Alternative Right
[3] BuzzFeed – How 2015 Fueled The Rise Of The Freewheeling
[4] Breitbart – An Establishment Conservative’s Guide To The Alt-Right
[5] Return of Kings – 5 Serious Problems With the Alt Right Movement
[7] 4plebs – at a hill rally
[8] Twitter – #AltRightMeans
[9] Reddit – /r/The_Donald
[10] Reddit – /r/technology
[12] Wikipedia – identitarian
[13] Anti-Defamation League (via Wayback Machine) – Richard Spencer
[14] Dailywire – I Know Trumps New Campaign Chairman Steve Bannon
[15] National Policy Institute – National Policy Institute
[16] The Atlantic – Suspending Alt-Right Twitter Accounts Doesnt Fix Anything
[17] Reddit – /r/altright (subreddit banned)
[18] USA Today – Twitter suspends alt-right accounts
[19] Reuters – Twitter suspends accounts of some alt-right figures
[20] The Daily Caller – Twitter Initiates Mass Purge Of Prominent Alt-Right Accounts
[21] The Independent – Reddit shuts down two popular alt-right subreddits
[22] HeatStreet (via Wayback Machine) – Reddit Bans Alt-Right Community and Other Rightwing Subreddits
[23] GotNews (via Wayback Machine) – @Reddit Threatens To Shut Down Compliant Right-Wing Subreddit
[24] Voat – /v/altright
[25] Cnet – Reddit shuts down alt-right subreddit
[26] Wired – Reddit has banned two leading alt-right subreddits
[27] The Next Web – Reddit drops the ban hammer on popular alt-right subreddits
[28] The Daily Dot – Reddit just banned its alt-right forum
[29] AP.org – How to describe extremists who rallied in Charlottesville
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