The alt-right movement: everything you need to know

From the Irish Times:

Alt-lite: The more mainstream form of the alternative right, embodied by figures such as Vice founder Gavin McInnes or Breitbart Tech editor Milo Yiannopoulos.
Alt-right: A young, energetic upstart faction of the Trump coalition heavily active on Twitter and underground forums. Characterised by nationalism, scepticism toward globalism and an irreverent sense of humour.
Blue hair: An aggressive, unpleasant feminist with brightly coloured hair, usually depicted as being overweight.
Cat lady: An older, less aggressive version of a blue hair. Cat ladies prefer MSNBC and Cosmopolitan, whereas a blue hair spends her life on social blogging platform Tumblr.
Cathedral: The ad-hoc post-second World War liberal-socialist alliance dominating western culture. Coined by pseudonymous neoreactionary blogger Mencius Moldbug, this includes everything from academia to media to government.
Chad: An alpha normie (see below). The alt-right seeks to appeal to Chads, a project known as Chad Nationalism.
Cuckservative: A portmanteau of “cuckold” and “conservative”, which was originally meant to imply that mainstream conservatives protected the welfare of foreign groups over Americans. Often shortened to “cuck” to describe any weak or feminine man. Conservative commentators Erick Erickson and Rick Wilson are exemplars.
Current year: A mocking reference to the left’s propensity to cite the current year as an argument. Example: “How can Donald Trump say these things? It’s 2016!”
Dindu or Dindu Nuffin: A black man convicted of a crime, often one lionized by the press or portrayed as innocent. An attempt to approximate the African-American Vernacular English pronunciation of “didn’t do anything” (“dindu nuffin”).
Fashy: Possessing a fascist aesthetic. Often used to describe military-style undercut hairdos such as those sported by Richard Spencer, publisher of Radix and the man who coined the term “alternative right”.
Kek: An Egyptian frog demon. Pepe the Frog is seen as an avatar of Kek. No, really. Also an onomatopoeia for laughter.
Narrative: Media and academia’s version of events. Individual events have a narrative, but so does the entire perspective advanced by mainstream culture.
Neoreactionary: A loose collection of anarcho-capitalists and monarchists centred around the writings of pseudonymous blogger Mencius Moldbug and continental philosopher Nick Land. Most have gone underground, writing for more mainstream publications.
New right: The heterogeneous political parties espousing a stew of nationalism, libertarianism and populism, such as the National Front in France, Ukip in Britain and Alternative for Germany. They are united by an opposition to globalisation and mass immigration. Donald Trump’s faction of the Republican Party is the de facto new right party in the United States. The alt-right and new right overlap but are not coterminous.
Normie: A normal person.
Paleoconservative: “Paleocon” for short. Paleoconservatives were a conservative faction emphasising tradition, family, identity, limited government and the rule of law. Prominent paleocon thinkers include Samuel T Francis, Joseph Sobran and Paul Gottfried, who coined the term “cultural Marxism”. Pat Buchanan’s 1996 presidential campaign was their apotheosis. The alt-right can, to a certain extent, be understood as an irreverent and youthful rebranding of paleoconservatism.
Signalling: Ideologically conspicuous consumption or performative belief. For example, purchasing a hybrid vehicle to showcase concern for the environment. Can also be the ostentatious expression of politically correct views. Derided by the alt-right as a means to acquire social status with little risk.
SJWs: Social justice warriors. Shrill, unpleasant and vaguely totalitarian leftists into gender, sexual and racial identity politics. See also: blue hair.
Snowflake: A person with an unusual, potentially dubious, gender identity.

About Luke Ford

I've written five books (see Amazon.com). My work has been covered in the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, and on 60 Minutes. I teach Alexander Technique in Beverly Hills (Alexander90210.com).
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