Tuesday, August 15, 2017

Alt-Right vs Alt-Left

As you probably know, Donald Trump, angry at the press for trying to derail a press conference, denounced both the so called Alt-Right with the so called Alt-Left. I think it's important to discuss both groups and what they believe and what they stand for.

Let's start with the Alt-Right. The first time I heard the term was a few years back when reading about Neoreaction. The Neo-reactionaries were/are a groups of right wing bloggers that basically argued that progressiveness had ruined the world and that we should probably return to either monarchy or dictatorship to turn the tide. Neoreaction was always a fringe group and never really made much of an impact other than the creation of the term Alt-Right.

In the lead up to the 2016 election, the term changed. All of a sudden it wasn't just a loose group of mostly ignored bloggers. Instead it basically came to mean anyone on the right that wasn't a neoconservative.

It included groups and people like right libertarians like Ron Paul, conspiracy theorists like Alex Jones, Human biodiversity folks, populist candidates like Donald Trump and Ted Cruz, media outlets like Breitbart, 4chan, paleoconservatives like Pat Buchanan and conservative rabble-rousers and e-celebs like Milo Yianopoullos and Lauren Southern. Gamergate was probably in the mix as well. None of these groups really got along and most of them had very divergent beliefs. I imagine a debate between Steve Bannon, Curtis Yarvin and Ron Paul would not go well, even if they do have some things in common.

Unfortunately, another group latched onto the name to the point that it is too toxic to associate with. That group consists of the dying remnants of the white power movement, like the KKK and Neo-Nazis, and newer groups including whatever the hell Richard Spencer is calling his followers. Once these groups started calling themselves the Alt-Right, everyone else ended up distancing themselves from the term. The media, ever happy to tar the right with accusations of racism, immediately helped these groups claim the term. Now, the Alt-Right exclusively refers to the racist elements in America, even though those groups aren't really conservative and nobody on the right likes them.

Today, Donald Trump suggested that there is a equivalent on the left. The so called Alt-Left presumably consists of groups like Antifa, Black Lives Matter, left anarchism, communists and other various far left actors. These groups have been responsible for an incredible amount of violence and have been responsible for a handful of terrorist attacks, including the attack on police officers in Dallas and, arguably, the attack on the congressional baseball game in Alexandria.

The term is rather new, though I have seen a few right wing news outlets use it before. I don't know if it is well defined either, but that is the same problem with the Alt-Right. I think the main obvious difference is that none of the violent leftist groups really call themselves "Alt-Left" while Spencer and a few other in the racist right do call themselves "Alt-Right".

Other than that I think there is some obvious crossover in their belief systems and even their members. Many on the Alt-right stereotype Jews and evil and diabolical masterminds out to destroy white people along with their useful idiot allies among non-white people, who they consider sub-human.

The Alt-Left appears to mirror those beliefs. In place of the Jews, upper class white males are the diabolical masterminds and the lower and middle class white males are the useful sub-human allies. Instead of attacking white people, in the Alt-Left world, it's people of color, women, the LGBT community and whoever else that could ever conceivably be oppressed that are going to be systemically destroyed by the evil outgroup. In short, the ideologies are essentially the same. Both groups demonize entire groups of people because of their skin color/ethnic backgrounds and at the same time lionize groups of people they feel are "oppressed". The main difference is the colors they wear and which color of people they hate.

Of course, it's important to note, that I find both groups beliefs to be disgusting. I consider both white nationalism and intersectional leftism to be horribly racist and evil ideologies. The idea that wide groups of people should be painted with a huge brush as being completely evil and irredeemable is deeply disgusting. And I think both groups need to be opposed by everyone who isn't them.

But I don't think that were the comparison ends. I think in addition to their beliefs there is a lot of overlap in what kind of people who are joining these groups. It seems to mostly be young males in their 20's who have enough money that they can easily travel and don't need to worry about work. They have a strong desire to look "badass" and enjoy fighting. Obviously the leftists are more diverse and have some women as well, but I think the main thing you can say that the Alt-Left and Alt-Right have in common is that they both like to fight.

And I think that is probably the most dangerous part about both groups. While I think the ideologies of both groups is disgusting, it's their willingness to commit violence that disturbs me the most. I think that both groups are fringe with little popular support, (though, like leftist groups in the 70's, the Alt-Left has institutional support). But they have a strong interest in fighting, and not just each other. This leads to clashes like Charlottesville where, predictably, someone got killed and a lot of people got hurt.

So what can be done about the Alt-Left and Alt-Right? I think the obvious thing is to stop letting them fight each other and throw all of them in jail when they cause violence. Obviously, we have to respect their right to free speech, so if they remain peaceful, we have to tolerate them, but when they cross the line into violence we need to come down on them with the hammer of the gods.

Another problem is that both the more mainstream right and left have little reason to cooperate with each other to stamp down on these groups. Both the Alt-Right and the Alt-Left match the stereotype in peoples minds about what the other side believes are the true beliefs of their opponents. And the nation is so polarized that any unity, even on a critical issue like this, is all but impossible. I think as long as that is true, events like Charlottesville will continue as nobody wants to get rid of the bogymen from the other side...

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