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My Experience with the Alt-Right
Townhall.com ^ | December 4, 2016 | Bruce Bialosky

Posted on 12/04/2016 10:22:12 AM PST by Kaslin

During the last election campaign all of a sudden I kept hearing about the Alt-Right. Since I thought I was pretty well read and had never heard of them, I considered them to have the same social relevance as a Miley Cyrus song. I decided to investigate this supposed social phenomenon as soon as the election was over and I was done writing about real issues important to the campaign.

I started by sending emails to mainstream Republicans asking them if they knew anyone who considered themselves members of the Alt-Right. The answer was a universal no. Then I sent emails to my friends who consider themselves conservative Republicans. These are people I respect, but I consider a little more hardcore. The answer was again we don’t know any of these people.

I did get one positive response suggesting I contact Jon Fleischman, someone I have known for 20 years, who in the past five years or so has been the California editor for Breitbart. I have also written for Jon’s publication Flashreport.org.

Jon is Jewish and works for Breitbart which has been accused of being anti-Semitic. Jon is a pretty knowledgeable guy -- doing his own publication and working for Breitbart -- but was totally ignorant about the Alt-Right. I asked him what he knew about Richard Spencer (someone who has gotten recent publicity as supposedly a leader of the Alt-Right) and he said “Who is he?” He then told me that Breitbart has an intercompany communication system called a Slack Network where they exchange ideas about columns and items to be published at Breitbart. He stated “I have never seen once anything indicating any racist or anti-Semitic attitudes, not once.”

I did have an extended email conversation with a gentleman, who said he was a member of the Alt-Right. His name is John Preston though he told me that was a pseudonym. He is with the Council of Conservative Citizens. He stated he used a pseudonym (as most of the people he knows do) because a lot of people who are members of the Alt-Right are afraid of employment discrimination and other factors. John was very forthcoming and seemingly intelligent. He wrote in a very lucid manner and stated he has been part of this movement for 15 years. He also made clear he has no idea how many people are in the Alt-Right because so much of it is underground.

When I asked Preston why he believes his viewpoints are controversial and not just anti-PC, he answered with this statement: “We stick up for white people. We believe white people have interests, too. It's a big taboo to hold that position in our society. Jewish people can advocate for Jewish interests like a pro-Israel foreign policy. Black people can advocate for black interests. There is an LGBT community now with its interests and public policy agenda. White people though ... that's where the line is drawn. It's *racist* to identify as white, to have a positive sense of white identity, and to advocate on behalf of white interests like reduced immigration or, say, law and order. There are groups like the SPLC which exist to get people fired from their jobs for holding our views. That's why our cause is controversial and our movement has been driven underground. I'm not sure how much longer that can continue though.”

When I asked him about immigration he replied, “It's not because we *hate* foreigners - if they stay in their own countries and act like good neighbors, we are fine with them. I don't have a problem with Mexicans in Mexico. I don't mind foreigners coming here and studying at our universities. Personally, I admire Japan more than any other country in the world.”

“It is because we want to maintain the white majority. We don't want to be overwhelmed in our own countries. The cultural, economic and political consequences of mass immigration are disastrous for us. The Left has told us for 20 years now that White Christian America is being overthrown and washed away by their ‘ascendant majority.’ We take them at their word, believe that it is not in our interests to allow this to happen, and we are determined to stop it.”

I will leave that for you the reader to characterize. This is not necessarily representative of all thought from the people who call themselves the Alt-Right. I will say that he is correct that is not acceptable thought in most mainstream circles today. And I will say that I don’t agree with his positions.

Yes, it is racially biased toward people of European heritage, and some people believe that they cannot be prejudiced against them because of the historical fact that whites have been the majority in the United States. Some analyses have shown that it will not be long before white people are no longer a majority in America.

I am not going to dismiss the fact that there are bigots and anti-Semites on both sides of the political spectrum in this country. This is a country of about 325 million people and there are a lot of people who believe weird things. There are people who think graffiti is art. There are people who think Rap music has some social redemption. I live with that every day. This is a free country and people are free to think really stupid thoughts as long as they don’t act out on those stupid thoughts in a violent manner -- you know, like the “protesters” in Portland.

One political party does everything it can to segregate voters by identity group: Black, Hispanic, Gay, Asian, One-eyed monsters etc. Then those people who dislike those groups will identify naturally with the other political party simply because it doesn’t identify potential voters by groups, but simply suggests policy ideas that will hopefully benefit all.

If fringe people identify with the Republicans, then their candidates must spend their day disavowing ever-stupid thing that come out of these people’s mouths. And if Republicans don’t disavow them quickly enough and with the “right words,” the disavowing is discounted. Nice game the Dems and their friends in the press have going here.

I have no idea really who these people in the Alt-Right are and neither do the people I know who have been involved in Republican politics for many years. That includes people who I consider -- and even they themselves would consider -- pretty hardcore conservatives. To me identifying the people who are actually with the Alt-Right with the Republicans is akin to identifying Hillary Clinton with the Communist Party of America who did endorse her.

This is the United States of America; we are either a center-right nation (which I believe we are) or a center-left nation to which we veer occasionally. But extremism has no relevance on the left or the right of this country. So stop trying to pin extremist on either party. It is unbecoming.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Editorial; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: evildemonrats; mentalillness
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To: Kaslin

“You must disavow the alt-right, white supremicists, and white nationalists!”
Please define them.
Well... everyone KNOWS who they are! And by asking that question, you’re RACISSS!”


21 posted on 12/04/2016 11:00:09 AM PST by Demiurge2 (Define your terms!)
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To: Leep

The Alt-Left destroyed the John Birch Society (everything they predicted in the 1960s has come to pass) over the use of the word “Communist.” The CIA invented the term “conspiracy theory” to help them do it.


22 posted on 12/04/2016 11:01:13 AM PST by E. Pluribus Unum (President Trump is coming, and the rule of law is coming with him.)
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To: ozzymandus
The Left invented "political correctness" to silence people who disagreed with them. Then they tried to jam it down everyone's throat to prevent opposing views. The entire country walked on eggshells, afraid of offending the arrogant liberals.

After this election, they invented "fake news" as an excuse why Hillary lost and are using it against media sources that are not propagandizing for them. Obama has pushed the fake news narrative as well. The MSM is pushing it too, unaware that fake news is what they spew out regularly.

Then they invented the "alt-right" as a reason why Trump won, implying that Trump was in bed with white supremacists. Hillary's campaign even pushed that narrative at the Harvard forum last week.

The Left does not have any new ideas to fool voters with, so they project their own inadequacies onto their critics and opponents. If it were not for their name-calling and belittling people who don't agree with them, they would have nothing.

People have had it with the Left, establishment politicians and the lying, self-centered MSM calling them names and telling them they are racists, sexists, misogynists, homophobes, islamaphobes or whatever other "ists" they can come up with.

Donald Trump came along and stuck a finger in the eye of these liberal know-it-alls. And that folks, is why he won.

23 posted on 12/04/2016 11:01:27 AM PST by HotHunt
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To: Kaslin

Maybe the “Vast Right Wing Conspiracy” Changed their name ? ;-)
</sarc>


24 posted on 12/04/2016 11:02:19 AM PST by HP8753 (Live Free!!!! .............or don't.)
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To: Kaslin

Like this?

https://video.search.yahoo.com/search/video?fr=mcafee&p=miley+cyrus+billy+idol+rebel+yell#id=0&vid=46d71bc26277e98e43b47ace03c0ac3f&action=click


25 posted on 12/04/2016 11:06:51 AM PST by Mariner (War Criminal #18)
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To: E. Pluribus Unum
I have discovered that Lefties go berserk when you use the term Alt-Left on them. I think we should use it all the time.

I'm in step with you on that.


26 posted on 12/04/2016 11:07:41 AM PST by \/\/ayne (I regret that I have but one subscription cancellation notice to give to my local newspaper.)
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To: Leep

John Birch Society Predicted 10 Steps To America’s Destruction 55 Years Ago

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vwWJQ9PRFIs


27 posted on 12/04/2016 11:08:02 AM PST by E. Pluribus Unum (President Trump is coming, and the rule of law is coming with him.)
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To: ozzymandus

Alt-Left
Control-Left
Command-Left

=== the PC crowd.


28 posted on 12/04/2016 11:11:30 AM PST by ptsal
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To: Kaslin
What absolute nonsense.

An article, supposedly, on the "alt-right" which manages to contain not a single true statement about them, nor to identify their principles.

The term was coined -- or at least introduced to the mainstream -- by Milo Yiannopoulos. He is clearly sympathetic to the alt-right but maintains he is not part of the movement.

Any discussion of the alt-right that involves even some very cursory Googling (like 30 seconds of work, tops) will turn up Jared Taylor, Richard Spenser, Vox Day, #gamergate, SJW's Always Lie, Cuckservative #cuck, #kek, Pepe, and lots of other tidbits and further hyperlinks not even mentioned in the article. (interalia, it goes without saying, Breitbart News and Steve Bannon as well.)

In fine and in sum: the author is completely clueless about the subject, and the article is worthless.

29 posted on 12/04/2016 11:13:27 AM PST by FredZarguna (And what Rough Beast, its hour come round at last, slouches toward Fifth Avenue to be born?)
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To: Kaslin

“Alt-Right”

It’s the same old Alinsky scam. It’s what the progressives do and which has never abated in the 8-year Obama bobble head era.


30 posted on 12/04/2016 11:13:48 AM PST by Hostage (Article V)
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To: E. Pluribus Unum
I've seen the same reaction when I use "alt-left" on other blogs and in letter to the editor forums in papers I visit.

It is a great tool. As the article says:
" If fringe people identify with the Republicans, then their candidates must spend their day disavowing ever-stupid thing that come out of these people’s mouths. And if Republicans don’t disavow them quickly enough and with the “right words,” the disavowing is discounted. Nice game the Dems and their friends in the press have going here.
...identifying the people who are actually with the Alt-Right with the Republicans is akin to identifying Hillary Clinton with the Communist Party of America who did endorse her.

31 posted on 12/04/2016 11:15:47 AM PST by Baynative ( Someone's going to have to pay for these carbon emissions, so it might as well be you.)
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To: Kaslin
I would characterize the Alt-Right as people who do not think that Establishment Republicans speak for them, who are not fans of the National Review "#NeverTrump" movement, and who think that Donald Trump's brand of "Make AMERICA Great Again" is what they've been looking for.

They are also the people who no longer give a DAMN about whether any Democrat is offended by them, their viewpoints, or their speech (unlike the "mainstream" right, which scurry for cover like roaches whenever any Democrat accuses them of being "racist", "sexist", "Islamophobic", or whatever).

"National Review" (and the "mainstream Right") lost me when they fired John Derbyshire over his The Talk: non-Black version.

32 posted on 12/04/2016 11:20:05 AM PST by PapaBear3625 (Big government is attractive to those who think that THEY will be in control of it.)
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To: thoughtomator

Actually the term Alt-Right was out there for five or six years already. It always a little vague, an inclusive term that included everyone on the dissident right as well as some odd internet based subcultures. What united that Alt Right was opposition to Conservatism Inc.

The current redefinition of the term was a organized Left / enemy media group-think exercise.

It’s entire purpose was to advance the “Trump is a racist” narrative. It was founded on the Bannon quip that “Breitbart is a platform for the Alt Right”.

Leftist operatives determined to define Alt Right as == white supremacy. Their media control has permitted them to accomplish this redefinition and false equivalence.

Their too-obvious goal was to dominate Trump by forcing him to fire Bannon. Trump, a natural alpha male is not easily dominated, a lesson the left should have learned by now, but apparently has not. They put a near hysterical level of effort into forcing Trump to denounce and fire Bannon, and failed. (In this way Trump does have an Alt-Right attitude. One can easily imagine most of the other GOPe candidates going full Glenn Beck in their denunciation is Bannon). Or, as the Alt Right describes such behavior, “cucked”.

Now many former members of the loose alt right coalition are concluding the term is no longer useful. Time will tell if anyone continues to self-identify under the label.

Richard Spencer’s highly publicized speech that trolled the leftist media with its “Hail Trump” closing may have killed the term’s value, and moved it into the permanent vault of pejoratives. Time will tell.

What is certain though is that there really is a large dissident right. And that it is growing, not shrinking. And that it does have a vocal fringe that will continue to be a problem for the rest of the loose coalition.


33 posted on 12/04/2016 11:21:03 AM PST by Jack Black (Dispossession is an obliteration of memory, of place, and of identity)
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

Dead on.


34 posted on 12/04/2016 11:27:11 AM PST by Leep (Stronger without her!)
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To: Kaslin

the extreme leftist keep inventing new terminology, because control of the language is control of the mind (and thus, America)

I have never heard “alt-right” either.

I would only point out that MOST of the mass-murders, slavery, racism, anti-Christianity/church and anti=Semitism has come from the left, not the right. Having themselves chosen to wear the mantle of slavery and murder, the leftists find it necessary to try to demonize the right.
Projection.... and (mostly) a lie. BUT there are still millions of voters (including the majority of certain well-propagandized D “core voting groups”) that believe these lies (role reversals). So, it is important for President Trump to keep doing what he was doing in the campaign, reaching out and trying to establish communications channels with those Americans.... (I am confident he plans to do this)


35 posted on 12/04/2016 11:27:48 AM PST by faithhopecharity ("Politicians are not born. They're excreted." Marcus Tullius Cicero)
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To: Kaslin

Whatever his opinion re the Alt-right, he is clueless. It takes nearly no searching to find Unz and Taki, and from there Cernovich and Vox Day.


36 posted on 12/04/2016 11:33:59 AM PST by buwaya
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To: eyedigress
I found this in Urban Dictionary

Top Definition

alt-right

Hilary Clinton's low energy attempt at defining a word trying to link Donald Trump to being a racist.

Alt-right does not mean anything. Does not describe anyone or a group of people that are tangible.

It's an empty word, just like she is.

Sad!

these are racist ideas, race baiting ideas, anti-muslim, anti-immigrant, anti-women, all key tenants making up the emerging racist ideloogy known as the 'alt-right' -Hillary Clinton, speaking in Reno, Nev, August 25, 2016

Source

37 posted on 12/04/2016 11:39:03 AM PST by Kaslin (Most humans have an attention span of about 10 minutes, after that they will revert to daydreaming)
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To: Kaslin

I’m a Paleoconservative, and don’t know any alt-right people.

I went hunting on alleged alt-right websites (Breitbart, which I follow, does not count), and could find nothing substantive.

The alt-right does not exist. It is a convenient punching bag for Hillary supporters, and a convenient umbrella for a very few neo-Nazis and similar extremists. And it is a source of memes for Internet pranksters and Millennial wise-guys!

Then there is that stupid clinton campaign operative who said that Hillary’s greatest moment in the 2016 campaign was her “alt-right” speech. I saw that speech on a Youtube. The highlight of that vapid speech was when a prankster shouted “PEPE!!!!” That proves my point!


38 posted on 12/04/2016 11:42:42 AM PST by Honorary Serb (Kosovo is Serbia! Free Srpska! Abolish ICTY!)
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To: SE Mom

I see a lot of that at zero hedge.


39 posted on 12/04/2016 11:42:50 AM PST by rockrr (Everything is different now...)
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To: Kaslin
“It is because we want to maintain the white majority. We don't want to be overwhelmed in our own countries. The cultural, economic and political consequences of mass immigration are disastrous for us. The Left has told us for 20 years now that White Christian America is being overthrown and washed away by their ‘ascendant majority.’ We take them at their word, believe that it is not in our interests to allow this to happen, and we are determined to stop it.”

You know, I have noticed that the Latino population seems very nice on the surface, but if you indicate that you don't want them taking over the entire country, some of them will drop the smiles and let you know that La Raza was here first and that they have every right to "take it back." And that's the real feeling under the "Dreamers/ just want a better life" thing. An awful lot of them.

And what's odd is, they think that white people should agree with them that we have no right to be here.

40 posted on 12/04/2016 11:42:53 AM PST by A_perfect_lady
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