Racism is evil - Charlottesville Strong
The rise and fall of the alt-right echo opinion by Jack Hunter published in the newspaper the Washington Examiner
Maine Writer ~ Public rally instructions 101: Raise awareness! Charlottesville was a tragically modern version of the Civil War and the violence exposed the evil intentions of the "alt-right".
Americans - patriotic Americans and those of us of all stripes- should be glad this unfortunate chapter in U.S. politics and history is over — especially conservatives. (IMO Jack Hunter is blocking a bit of reality here. 39% of Republicans continue to irresponsibly support Donald Trump. Those who continue to back this evil and illegally elected Trumpzi tyrant are, in all honesty, the alt-right in sheep's clothing. Racism is evil and the alt-right must be shown the reflection of their hideous intentions by revealing them for what they are - Nazis.)
Jack Hunter (@jackhunter74) is a contributor to the Washington Examiner 's Beltway Confidential blog. He is the former political editor of Rare.us and co-authored the 2011 book The Tea Party Goes to Washington with Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky.
Alt-right evil definition at this link
The less than 40 or so assorted (IMO: evil) racists that showed up for Unite the Right 2 rally in Washington, D.C., on Sunday represented, in all likelihood, the swan song for a movement that appeared to be riding high two years ago, and was severely diminished after the awful spectacle in Charlottesville, Va., last year, and did little more than flail one last time in Washington DC, on Sunday. Who knew “the Right” had less than 50 people in it?
Thankfully, these cretins are done. But as we bid them adieu, let’s recall how this monstrosity happened in the first place.
In May 2016, I took Breitbart provocateur Milo Yiannopoulos to task for championing a new and often misunderstood movement called the “alt-right,” which he had recently dedicated 3,500 words to promoting in his essay “ An Establishment Conservative’s Guide to the Alt-Right.” (MaineWriter: Brietbart-barfcart)
Jack Hunter said the alt-right was an inherently racist movement with white nationalism at its core. Yiannopoulos got mad that I would dare suggest such a thing (to which I also responded).
Yiannopoulos — arguably the highest-profile alt-right advocate to date and gateway drug for so many young people who dabbled with it — wrote, glowingly, (and, IMO, dangerously!) along with Breitbart co-author Allum Bokhari, that, “the alt-right has a youthful energy and jarring, taboo-defying rhetoric that have boosted its membership and made it impossible to ignore.”
The less than 40 or so assorted (IMO: evil) racists that showed up for Unite the Right 2 rally in Washington, D.C., on Sunday represented, in all likelihood, the swan song for a movement that appeared to be riding high two years ago, and was severely diminished after the awful spectacle in Charlottesville, Va., last year, and did little more than flail one last time in Washington DC, on Sunday. Who knew “the Right” had less than 50 people in it?
Thankfully, these cretins are done. But as we bid them adieu, let’s recall how this monstrosity happened in the first place.
Hunter described the "alt-right" and the hate group's rise
Jack Hunter said the alt-right was an inherently racist movement with white nationalism at its core. Yiannopoulos got mad that I would dare suggest such a thing (to which I also responded).
Yiannopoulos — arguably the highest-profile alt-right advocate to date and gateway drug for so many young people who dabbled with it — wrote, glowingly, (and, IMO, dangerously!) along with Breitbart co-author Allum Bokhari, that, “the alt-right has a youthful energy and jarring, taboo-defying rhetoric that have boosted its membership and made it impossible to ignore.”
Sounds exciting, right? I guess “taboo-defying” is one way to explain explicit racism in 2018.
While denying the alt-right was inherently racist, Yiannopoulos would also say things like, “The alt-right believe that some degree of separation between peoples is necessary for a culture to be preserved.” He also wrote, “The alt-right’s intellectuals would also argue that culture is inseparable from race.”
It’s not hard to connect those dots and figure out where they lead.
And who were the alt-right’s “intellectuals” according to Yiannopoulos? He listed Richard Spencer as one, who would later become famous for being a “nazi” who got punched in the face.
Yiannopoulos called Spencer a “renegade” long before anyone knew his name. Who doesn’t want to be a renegade? Yiannopoulos even joined him for karaoke while alt-right members gave Nazi salutes and was caught exchanging friendly emails with sites like the neo-Nazi Daily Stormer, as revealed by BuzzFeed last year.
Yiannopoulos would eventually severely diminish himself last year after making controversial comments about pedophilia, but the damage in elevating the alt-right had already been done.
While most of the young people I encountered in my libertarian and conservative circles stayed away from this garbage, I would come across some at conferences and online who tried to convince me either that the alt-right wasn’t really racist, usually parroting Yiannopoulos’ rhetoric, or worse, that racism — or the allegedly more respectable “racialism” — wasn’t such a bad thing after all.
These types of conversations and thinking seem to explode online, where it was hard to go on social media without encountering it, or at least in the conservative bubble, though it was by no means confined to that bubble.
This phenomenon lasted, with some ebbs and flows, generally right up until the alt-right decided to hold its first real event in Charlottesville on August 11, 2017.
The alt-right’s fall
After well over a year of trolling people on Twitter, the mostly faceless alt-right had planned a Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, to supposedly protest the removal of a statue of Confederate General Robert E. Lee.
One of the most memorable video clips of that event showed young, white men with Tiki torches and “fashy” haircuts, chanting, “ Jews will not replace us.” What Jews or replacing people had to do with Lee is anyone’s guess.
The Lee statue was merely an excuse, not a cause, for racists to gather and promote their venom.
Though intended to advance their movement, what Charlottesville actually accomplished was showing America and the world — many of who had still never heard the term “alt-right” or were still confused about what it actually was (thanks, Milo) — that it was just the same old KKK and neo-Nazis of yesteryear trying to repackage themselves.
After a sea of swastikas and Confederate flags flashed across their television and computer screens, combined with violence in the streets, including the killing of anti-racist protester Heather Heyer, the country looked on in horror.
How could this be happening in the modern-day United States? Was this even America anymore?
The trolls had emerged from behind their keyboards and no one liked what they saw.
Not only young people who had once flirted with this stuff, but older conservatives who might have once thought “alt-right” meant merely being against the Republican establishment, (I spoke to a number of older conservatives who made that mistake pre-Charlottesville, and though it might be controversial, I would even generally include former Trump adviser Stephen Bannon in this category) now knew unequivocally what “alt-right” meant and rejected it soundly.
It’s one thing to hear liberals call conservatives of any stripe “Nazi” and assume it’s the typical leftist tactic of calling anyone who disagrees with them racist. It’s quite another to see Nazi flags and "Sieg Heil" salutes flaunted openly in an American city.
Post-Charlottesville, that flurry of racist, anti-Semitic, misogynist, and homophobic online activity that for so long had sullied the Internet at a higher level than anyone would have ever anticipated, dissipated to a significant degree.
If being alt-right had seemed titillating or edgy months prior, being associated in any way, or certainly any supportive way, with what went down in Charlottesville became something closer to kryptonite, with a number of alt-righters even losing their jobs over their participation. Anti-racist online activists began to troll alt-righters instead of the other way around for a change.
What others had tried to obscure, Charlottesville had shown clearly: Being alt-right meant being racist, period.
The alt-right’s tombstone
A year ago, more than a thousand alt-right activists showed up in Charlottesville with Nazi and Confederate flags for a confrontation that would be the death knell of their movement.
On Sunday, less than 40 alt-right activists showed up in Washington, D.C., this time with only American flags, which were eventually taken from them by the police. In fact, organizer Jason Kessler pleading with the cops to please let him carry his flag might have been the only thing he actually protested the whole day.
It was pathetic.
For well more than two years, various racists had latched on to Trump, with the president sometimes helping their cause, however intentionally or unintentionally ( something Hillary Clinton did too). With the aid of promoters like Yiannopoulos, Spencer, and others, the alt-right was an unfortunate but substantial phenomenon the American Right had to contend with. For a time, both the Left and the alt-right were eager to portray this racist movement as the Right, for obvious reasons.
Alt-righters will no doubt continue to exaggerate their numbers and influence, and liberals will unquestionably try to say every right-leaning individual of any stripe is alt-right. While Yiannopoulos was last seen selling vitamin supplements on Alex Jones’ Infowars (and had quit promoting the alt-right altogether some time ago) and Spencer has been reduced to beggingfor legal fees, these and other figures will still be around in some fashion.
But they won’t matter like they once did, or at least appeared to. Whatever momentum the alt-right movement once had, real or imagined, simply doesn’t exist anymore. This has been true for months now, but Sunday was the finis.
A movement that once advertised itself as new and exciting imploded the moment it revealed itself to be the same old racism, both deplorable and stale. Can you imagine anything more hilarious and sad than a Unite the Right 3 next year? Don’t count on that happening.
While denying the alt-right was inherently racist, Yiannopoulos would also say things like, “The alt-right believe that some degree of separation between peoples is necessary for a culture to be preserved.” He also wrote, “The alt-right’s intellectuals would also argue that culture is inseparable from race.”
It’s not hard to connect those dots and figure out where they lead.
And who were the alt-right’s “intellectuals” according to Yiannopoulos? He listed Richard Spencer as one, who would later become famous for being a “nazi” who got punched in the face.
Yiannopoulos called Spencer a “renegade” long before anyone knew his name. Who doesn’t want to be a renegade? Yiannopoulos even joined him for karaoke while alt-right members gave Nazi salutes and was caught exchanging friendly emails with sites like the neo-Nazi Daily Stormer, as revealed by BuzzFeed last year.
Yiannopoulos would eventually severely diminish himself last year after making controversial comments about pedophilia, but the damage in elevating the alt-right had already been done.
While most of the young people I encountered in my libertarian and conservative circles stayed away from this garbage, I would come across some at conferences and online who tried to convince me either that the alt-right wasn’t really racist, usually parroting Yiannopoulos’ rhetoric, or worse, that racism — or the allegedly more respectable “racialism” — wasn’t such a bad thing after all.
These types of conversations and thinking seem to explode online, where it was hard to go on social media without encountering it, or at least in the conservative bubble, though it was by no means confined to that bubble.
This phenomenon lasted, with some ebbs and flows, generally right up until the alt-right decided to hold its first real event in Charlottesville on August 11, 2017.
The alt-right’s fall
After well over a year of trolling people on Twitter, the mostly faceless alt-right had planned a Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, to supposedly protest the removal of a statue of Confederate General Robert E. Lee.
One of the most memorable video clips of that event showed young, white men with Tiki torches and “fashy” haircuts, chanting, “ Jews will not replace us.” What Jews or replacing people had to do with Lee is anyone’s guess.
The Lee statue was merely an excuse, not a cause, for racists to gather and promote their venom.
Though intended to advance their movement, what Charlottesville actually accomplished was showing America and the world — many of who had still never heard the term “alt-right” or were still confused about what it actually was (thanks, Milo) — that it was just the same old KKK and neo-Nazis of yesteryear trying to repackage themselves.
After a sea of swastikas and Confederate flags flashed across their television and computer screens, combined with violence in the streets, including the killing of anti-racist protester Heather Heyer, the country looked on in horror.
How could this be happening in the modern-day United States? Was this even America anymore?
The trolls had emerged from behind their keyboards and no one liked what they saw.
Not only young people who had once flirted with this stuff, but older conservatives who might have once thought “alt-right” meant merely being against the Republican establishment, (I spoke to a number of older conservatives who made that mistake pre-Charlottesville, and though it might be controversial, I would even generally include former Trump adviser Stephen Bannon in this category) now knew unequivocally what “alt-right” meant and rejected it soundly.
It’s one thing to hear liberals call conservatives of any stripe “Nazi” and assume it’s the typical leftist tactic of calling anyone who disagrees with them racist. It’s quite another to see Nazi flags and "Sieg Heil" salutes flaunted openly in an American city.
Post-Charlottesville, that flurry of racist, anti-Semitic, misogynist, and homophobic online activity that for so long had sullied the Internet at a higher level than anyone would have ever anticipated, dissipated to a significant degree.
If being alt-right had seemed titillating or edgy months prior, being associated in any way, or certainly any supportive way, with what went down in Charlottesville became something closer to kryptonite, with a number of alt-righters even losing their jobs over their participation. Anti-racist online activists began to troll alt-righters instead of the other way around for a change.
What others had tried to obscure, Charlottesville had shown clearly: Being alt-right meant being racist, period.
The alt-right’s tombstone
A year ago, more than a thousand alt-right activists showed up in Charlottesville with Nazi and Confederate flags for a confrontation that would be the death knell of their movement.
On Sunday, less than 40 alt-right activists showed up in Washington, D.C., this time with only American flags, which were eventually taken from them by the police. In fact, organizer Jason Kessler pleading with the cops to please let him carry his flag might have been the only thing he actually protested the whole day.
It was pathetic.
For well more than two years, various racists had latched on to Trump, with the president sometimes helping their cause, however intentionally or unintentionally ( something Hillary Clinton did too). With the aid of promoters like Yiannopoulos, Spencer, and others, the alt-right was an unfortunate but substantial phenomenon the American Right had to contend with. For a time, both the Left and the alt-right were eager to portray this racist movement as the Right, for obvious reasons.
Alt-righters will no doubt continue to exaggerate their numbers and influence, and liberals will unquestionably try to say every right-leaning individual of any stripe is alt-right. While Yiannopoulos was last seen selling vitamin supplements on Alex Jones’ Infowars (and had quit promoting the alt-right altogether some time ago) and Spencer has been reduced to beggingfor legal fees, these and other figures will still be around in some fashion.
But they won’t matter like they once did, or at least appeared to. Whatever momentum the alt-right movement once had, real or imagined, simply doesn’t exist anymore. This has been true for months now, but Sunday was the finis.
A movement that once advertised itself as new and exciting imploded the moment it revealed itself to be the same old racism, both deplorable and stale. Can you imagine anything more hilarious and sad than a Unite the Right 3 next year? Don’t count on that happening.
Americans - patriotic Americans and those of us of all stripes- should be glad this unfortunate chapter in U.S. politics and history is over — especially conservatives. (IMO Jack Hunter is blocking a bit of reality here. 39% of Republicans continue to irresponsibly support Donald Trump. Those who continue to back this evil and illegally elected Trumpzi tyrant are, in all honesty, the alt-right in sheep's clothing. Racism is evil and the alt-right must be shown the reflection of their hideous intentions by revealing them for what they are - Nazis.)
Jack Hunter (@jackhunter74) is a contributor to the Washington Examiner 's Beltway Confidential blog. He is the former political editor of Rare.us and co-authored the 2011 book The Tea Party Goes to Washington with Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky.
Labels: alt-right, Donald Trump, Jack Hunter, Milo Yiannopoulos, Nazi, Washington Examiner
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