What does the “Alt-Right” have in common with 2014’s Koch Brothers, 2012’s “ALEC”, 2010’s “Tea Party”, 2004’s “neocons”, and 1994’s “Vast Right-Wing Conspiracy?”
Everything!
One of the great staples of politics – in this case, the left, although the right does it too (although with less cynical panache or institutional momentum) – is “finding a boogeyman to wave around to scare the crap out of your base”, ideally motivating them to come to the polls.
- In 1996, it was Hillary’s “vast right-wing conspiracy” – the shadowy, all-powerful and, as it happens, fictitious conglomeration of Fox News, Rush Limbaugh and, er, others, I guess – whom the left trumpeted as the real machers behind the scenes, operating against the plucky underdogs of the left (like George Soros and Paul Allen).
- In 2004, it was the “Neocons” – a shadowy, all-powerful, and vaguely Jew-y band of conspirators who wanted to control All the Oil and kill All the Muslims for Israel, or something, arrayed against the plucky, grass-roots left ((like George Soros and Paul Allen).
- In 2010, it was the “Tea Party” – a fairly spontaneous outpouring of libertarian populism which threatened the plucky, organic left ((like Journo-List, George Soros and Paul Allen).
- In 2012, it was ALEC – a run-of-the-mill policy think tank much like many others on all sides of the political aisle that the left’s PR machine, plucky grass-rooters that they were (like George Soros and Paul Allen and Michael Bloomberg), tried to paint as a shadowy, sinister conspiracy that drove public policy via unprecedented means like, well, circulating model bills and stuff.
- In 2014 it was the “Koch Brothers”, a couple of libertarian billionaires with a history of donating to libertarian causes on both sides of the political aisle who, though they aren’t even among the top fifty individual political donors, were portrayed by the left’s plucky, grass-roots PR machine (funded by George Soros and Paul Allen) as a shadowy, vaguely Jew-y conspiracy to buy the government.
So of course the “Alt Right” – a tiny, politically inconsequential group of marginal people with marginal-radical views on some hot-topic issues – is suddenly in the news.
Of course, in every case, Berg’s Seventh Law applies; for every one of these purported right wing big-money “conspiracy”, there was a real-world left-wing counterpart doing exactly what the left accused the right of doing.
And don’t forget about the Republicans secret plan to eliminate social security. It all over again this year, just like every year since…….1980?
You know, if Trump is smart, he’d get those quotes by Hillary about how her hero is Margaret Sanger. Then show the photo of Sanger speaking at a KKK rally in New Jersey. With all the white hooded KKKers giving Sanger the Nazi style salute.
And the Republicans are going to bring back the draft!
Economically related….Ashley Furniture is laying off 840 people in California, and shifter production to North Carolina, Mississippi, and Wisconsin.
Now, for the life of me, I can’t figure out why….oh wait, nevermind. California is one of if not the most anti-Business state in the union. The other three are pro-business. Well, Wisconsin is for now.
The Neocons still exist. They call them selves #NeverTrump.
The only reason they were considered “vaguely Jew-y” is every time they were even mildly criticized they’d jump about pointing fingers and yell ANTISEMITE!!!
I caught some of Glenn Beck’s show the last couple of days. He’s been going on about the new Alt Right and some of the evil that the left is blaming it for. I didn’t hear any of the shows to the end, so I could be off.
I’m not sure exactly where the alt-right meme started, I’m guessing Slate or Mother Jones, but it is amazing how fast the empty headed leftists absorb a talking point. Alt-Right is now dangling off every leftist lip.
How do I join the alt-right? Is there a test, or an initiation fee? HOw about a logo? Are there monthly dues? How about schwag; where do I get some sweet alt-right coffee cups and ball caps?
Chuck, Sanger did readily acknowledge making speeches before KKK women’s auxiliaries, the picture you find on the internet is bogus. There are no pictures, but do we really need one?
Alt-right is smear campaign. Insinuation, guilt by association, all the tools of the Left are in play, and, as usual, the media swallows it whole.
Remember Bill Ayres? Ayres was a terrorist who conspired to kill American enlisted men and non-coms. Naturally, Ayres came from wealth and privilege. Ayres is a free man is due to a technicality (tainted evidence). When the charges were dropped, Ayres famously commented “guilty as Hell, free as a bird.” Obama tried to dismiss his association with Ayres by saying that their kids just happened to go to the same school, an amazing bit of deception. Ayre’s kids are a generation older than Obama’s kids. They may have technically went to the same school, but Ayres and Obama had no association other than politics.
Bento, I think we should embrace the alt-right moniker; make it ours. It’s edgy and they are going to smear us anyway, what have we got to lose?
I AM THE ALT-RIGHT
I’ve been surfing around to find the definitive Alt-Right site. There isn’t one. Everybody who’s fed up with Establishment Republicans and Purity Test Libertarians has their own idea of what The True Right ought to believe but so far, nothing has coalesced into a party or faction or even an agreed-upon set of beliefs.
Back in the days when the Church of England was deciding whether it’s eternal and fundamental rules could be bent by individual congregations so far as to ordain bishops and bless homosexuals, some wag wrote: “No man alive can say with confidence that he is not Anglican.”
Sounds like Alt-Right to me. I can’t tell if I am or not, because there’s nobody in charge to say what Alt-Right is or isn’t. All we know is IT IS BAD!
Chuck, the trouble is that liberals can point to the fact that North Carolina, Wisconsin, and Mississippi have greater proximity to steel, wood, and fabric than does California. No?
(well, except for the fact that California has better access to asian fabric mills and machine shops that make things like springs, plus better access to illegal immigrant labor…..)
Point well taken, though.
This editorial appeared in my local paper today:
http://www.hawaiitribune-herald.com/commentary/their-views/alt-right-real-and-it-s-dangerous
The author is, of course, a Lefty:
Thomas J. Main is a professor at the School of Public and International Affairs, Baruch College, CUNY. He is writing a book on the Alt-Right and American politics. He wrote this for the Los Angeles Times.
Naturally, Main says the ‘alt-right’ is neo nazi and KKK. What makes you alt-right? His say so. “The Alt-Right supports the mass deportation of undocumented immigrants and protectionist trade policies. It opposes feminism, diversity, gay rights, globalism, gun control and civil rights.”
Uh . . . opposes gun control and civil rights.
There is one candidate who opposes civil rights — as laid out in the bill of rights — and that candidate is named “Hillary Clinton.”
The other things mentioned are so vague that they are meaningless. What does it mean to oppose feminism? Or diversity? If opposing SSM is the same thing as opposing gay rights, Hillary and Obama were both ‘alt right’ until 2012.
Following that logic, the alt left supports gun confiscation, gay wedding dress up day, illegal immigration, the welfare state and race identity politics. The alt left is nothing more heinous than your run of the mill moonbat.
opposes gun control and civil rights
Applying Occam’s razor informs us that this is yet another academic so muddled he doesn’t see self defense as God given, or civil right. But giving him the benefit of the doubt, if he has actually put thought into it, he’s concluded that the your right to self defense ends where other’s ability to misuse the means begins.
Think of the alt-right as a massive, younger, more tech savvy version of the tea party. Hates the establishment of both parties and is known to troll and use memes quite well. There is a small percentage of literally Nazis and anti-semities amongst us but we begrudgingly tolerate them because we hold the 1st amendment as sacred. Or look up Brietbart and the articles they have written about us, yes after much consideration I consider myself amongst them.
I’ve been surfing around to find the definitive Alt-Right site
Yesterday’s Tea Party is today’s Alt-Right. This is just a repackaging by the left to create a new boogieman to divert attention from problems at home.
Only were younger and more creative
I’ve just learned that Taki’s Magazine is alt-right…that’s all right with me!