Ari Feldman writes for the Forward.com: “As a white supremacist movement, it seems to have a fairly large following among millennials.”
How is the Alt-Right any more supremacist than Judaism, which holds that the Jews are God’s Chosen People?
“Yet the internet — the cradle of 21st century white supremacy — has become something of a staging ground for a schism within the alt-right: to become mainstream or stay staunchly bigoted against all non-white, non-straight people.”
How is the internet more of a cradle for white supremacy than say, Jewish supremacy or Chinese supremacy or Korean supremacy?
There are only two honorable forms of arguments — to dispute facts and to dispute logic. Name-calling is not honorable argument. Calling the Alt-Right “staunchly bigoted” is just name-calling.
“Neo-Nazi” is often just a slur at people who hold unpopular views, though it can be an accurate descriptive when directed at those who enjoy dressing up and acting like Nazis. Nazism is strictly a German phenomenon. You can’t be non-German and a Nazi. By contrast, anyone can be a fascist.
Keegan Hankes, a data intelligence analyst at the SPLC, says that, although much of this online activity is ostensibly aimed at expanding the “Overton window” of acceptable political discourse, the “meme team” is a real source of alt-right ideology…
Anglin has taken clashed on several occasions with the approach of Richard Spencer, the head of the National Policy Institute, a think tank devoted to the ideology of the alt-right. Spencer has, in his published writings and in public interviews on Reddit, declined to issue the kind of hateful proclamations against people in the LGBT community and Jews that are Anglin’s bread-and-butter. Spencer is attempting to legitimize the alt-right movement; Anglin seems to want to make sure it never forgets its roots.
“The reason [Anglin] was omitted [from Yiannapoulos’ article] was to protect Richard Spencer,” Hankes said. As two very visible leaders of the alt-right — one online and one in Washington — they seem to be engaged in a struggle over the direction of the alt-right movement.
After Spencer announced the lineup for last year’s annual NPI conference, Anglin took to Daily Stormer to give his praise — until he found out something he could not abide.
“It has come to my attention that Jack Donovan is an open homosexual, and as such, I am withdrawing my support for this conference,” Anglin wrote in May 2015. “I encourage people to boycott the conference in protest of the inclusion of an open homosexual in the pro-White movement.”
…It’s unclear if and how the next NPI conference will help bridge the gulf between would-be politicos like Spencer and glorified internet trolls like Anglin — or widen it. Yet even if Anglin is eventually pushed to the side to make way for Spencer’s more inclusive agenda, chances are that he will be able to keep his site at the heart of the online alt-right community.
For one thing, Anglin has a clear grasp of modern media sensibilities. He started Daily Stormer in 2013, a year after creating Totalfascism.com, a site similar to the Richard Spencer-led Radix Journal that published longform essays on white supremacy. Daily Stormer is characterized by short articles with many gifs and embedded tweets and videos, much in the style of classic Buzzfeed articles.
The differences between Andrew Anglin and Richard Spencer and the various wings of the Alt-Right are like the differences between Orthodox Jews. When push comes to shove, Orthodox Jews are in it together. Sure, they may gripe about one another, but they are a distinct community. The Modern Orthodox may bash the haredim and the haredim may pour contempt on the Modern Orthodox, but whenever there is a threat from the outside, these groups come together in their common interest.
The differences between Jared Taylor, Kevin MacDonald, Richard Spencer, Greg John, Gregory Hood and even perhaps Andrew Anglin are minor.
The Alt-Right is white nationalist and anti-Semitic or it is nothing at all, notes Greg Johnson. Jews should welcome this clarity and honesty.
Ari Feldman has been a busy man:
