Better defined by what it isn’t than what it is, the “Alt-right,” broadly speaking, is a reaction to left wing identity politics and the failure of traditional Conservatism to formulate a reply. The alt-right opposes interventionist neocon policies with the same ferocity as illegal immigration and gun control. They share more similarities with European “far right” parties, such as the French FN, than they do with traditional Republicans. History buffs may want to look at “Nationalist State Capitalist” policies of the Spanish Falange in the early 1930’s to get a clearer picture.
Aside from this, the alt-right is the most aggressively offensive political movement in existence, and it often targets the Jewish community. So why would I be there?
I enjoy the nasty talk in the alt-right. I enjoy spending rhetorical time with people who might otherwise hate me. The alt-right has energy, it has vitality, it’s something NEW and creative, it’s honest and forthright. It’s also the only viable political movement that is explicitly fighting for that nebulous concept of “Western Civilization.”
I have thick skin and a tolerance for others. Liberals like to imagine themselves “tolerant,” but real tolerance is the ability to be around people who are different than you and still value them as people. I’m from a small town, and was raised around tough, rural whites who didn’t spend much time checking their privilege.
College was where my awakening began. I majored in Philosophy, and in the mid to late 90’s, concepts such as “white privilege” and “critical race theory” were still part of the free marketplace of ideas, ideas you could debate without fear of sanction. Being acutely aware of rural white poverty, I rejected these concepts in favor of an understanding that privilege was as complex as the human experience, an experience the identity warrior on the left believes is dependent on our racial identity. Politically I called myself a leftist, but this changed as I realized the privilege equation worked against my own community. Watching the left attack Israel in the late 90’s turned me away from left wing politics for good.
After 9/11, the “neo con” ideology took over Conservative thought. The Bush Administration’s failed policies opened the door for Barack Obama and what should have been a new era of progressive politics. I had rejected the hard left, but saw Obama as a pragmatic whose economic policies would be better for middle and working class Americans. I don’t think he had been in office six months before his capitulation to Wall Street was complete, and within a few years his foreign policy was little different than Bush’s, full of failed interventions and optimistic slaughters. The Republicans, through all of this, had nothing to offer but shrill, ineffective denunciation.
The Trayvon Martin case had more to do with the growth of the Alt-Right than any individual event. I remember the initial reports of the incident, suggesting Zimmerman had used racial slurs, tracked down and shot an innocent child. As more and more evidence came out challenging this narrative, something was happening to my “liberal” friends.
