{"id":118345,"date":"2017-10-31T08:38:29","date_gmt":"2017-10-31T16:38:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/?p=118345"},"modified":"2017-10-31T08:40:20","modified_gmt":"2017-10-31T16:40:20","slug":"foreign-affairs-the-european-roots-of-the-alt-right-how-far-right-ideas-are-going-international","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/?p=118345","title":{"rendered":"Foreign Affairs: The European Roots of the Alt-Right – How Far-Right Ideas Are Going International"},"content":{"rendered":"

George Hawley writes<\/a>:<\/p>\n

Some figures once associated with the ENR have attacked it for a similar reason, but from the right rather than the left. These critics, most prominent among them the journalist Guillaume Faye, believe that the ENR\u2019s high-minded, universalistic rhetoric about difference is a sham. Faye rejects the idea that the movement should fight, as de Benoist put it, for \u201cthe cause of peoples,\u201d urging it to instead be honest that it really cares only about the fate of Europe\u2014especially as it relates to Muslim immigration, which Faye sees as a mortal threat. In Faye\u2019s view, dancing around this uncomfortable truth with talk of an abstract right to difference serves only to water down the ENR\u2019s message and weaken its impact.<\/p>\n

Faye has also rejected de Benoist\u2019s preference for abstract metapolitics designed to persuade elites and change the culture. He has argued that because of Europe\u2019s demographic trajectory, which points toward a steadily declining white share of the population throughout the twenty-first century, Europeans do not have time to wait for the cultural landscape to change; instead, practical politics must begin today. Faye\u2019s manifesto Why We Fight calls for a \u201cfight with a sense of urgency, to stop the invasion and reverse Europe\u2019s biocultural destruction.\u201d The book is now a mainstay on the alt-right in the United States and is promoted by alt-right groups such as Identity Evropa.<\/p>\n

From its birth until the recent past, the ENR received little attention from the American right, despite making waves in France and other European countries. The lack of interest on the mainstream right is easy to understand. The ENR rejects nearly every element of U.S. conservatism, including capitalism, Christianity, and support for the United States\u2019 international hegemony. It is thus unsurprising that the movement long received only cursory attention from mainstream U.S. conservative outlets such as National Review…<\/p>\n

These European ideas are finding a receptive audience in the United States for many reasons. One is the declining legitimacy of mainstream U.S. conservatism, which has prompted a search for right-wing alternatives to what is increasingly perceived as a calcified and anachronistic ideology. Ideas taken from the ENR are also useful for those who wish to provide an intellectual gloss to crude racist attitudes…<\/p>\n

The European far right\u2019s influence on its U.S. counterparts now extends beyond works of political theory. The use of the term \u201cidentitarian\u201d to describe American white nationalists\u2014a rhetorical device that is increasingly common among alt-right ideologues and serves to soften the movement\u2019s image\u2014is similarly adopted from Europe.<\/p>\n

The alt-right is also borrowing activism tactics honed by the European far right. Having apparently learned a lesson from the Charlottesville rally\u2014which was a major propaganda defeat for the alt-right\u2014the movement is increasingly turning to so-called flash mobs. Rather than announcing their activities months in advance and giving their opponents time to organize, alt-right supporters rapidly assemble, declare their message, and disperse before counterprotesters can mobilize\u2014a method that the European identitarian movement has used for years. The European far right has in turn adopted tactics pioneered in the United States, such as online trolling.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

George Hawley writes: Some figures once associated with the ENR have attacked it for a similar reason, but from the right rather than the left. These critics, most prominent among them the journalist Guillaume Faye, believe that the ENR\u2019s high-minded, … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[42720],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-118345","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-alt-right"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t