What is the American "alternative right"?
NOTICE: I wrote the following description of the “alt right” several years ago, back when the movement was more hazy, and still in the process of being defined. Circa late 2016, the consensus in the media and mainstream politics seems to be that the ideology is best understood as a white nationalist movement, and I agree with this conclusion. Ownership over the name “alt-right” has now been pretty firmly claimed by white nationalists, and I believe the era of it being a broad term capable of describing a diversity of beliefs has ended. Below is my description of the alt-right as I perceived it as existing circa 2014.
The "Alternative Right," or more commonly, the "alt right" is a diverse assortment of people, mostly online, who identify as right-wingers but consider themselves either opposed to, or profoundly alienated from mainstream American conservatism — usually because they view it as being too liberal, or preoccupied with the wrong issues.
The "alt right" exists mostly in the form of an archipelago of blogs, podcasts, and social media accounts, many of which center around a single pseudonymous commentator. The ideologies espoused by "alt right" types can vary greatly, but broadly speaking includes certain sorts of extreme libertarians, immigration critics and "race realists" (basically intellectual racists and anti-semites), "neo-reactionaries" (who argue against democracy, human rights, and other manefestations of modernist philosophy), and anti-feminists, including some of the "Men's Rights" crowd. But there is also a more generic or moderate flavor of alt right thought that may not fully embrace any of the above agendas, but still be sympathic to their contrarian messages of skepticism towards prevailing conventional wisdom on matters like race, gender, and party politics.
A lot of alt-right commentary tends to be more easily defined in terms of what it opposes than what it supports. Its main subjects of scorn tend to be out-of-touch, left-wing elites in politics, business, academia, and the mainstream media who they believe to be actively ruining society through their aggressive embrace of feminist, multicultural, and post-modernist ideas. I would say the alt right is primarily about cultural issues, and less interested in economic policy or public policy in general. Views on foreign policy tend to be all over the place, and the topic is often engaged with mostly as a prism for understanding (and critiquing) foreign cultures.
The alt right is an interesting, creative, growing intellectual movement within broader American conservatism. It appears to be led, and most enthusiastically supported by young white men, who could rise to become an important force within Republican politics and Republican-aligned media. Already we are seeing some "mainstream" conservative publications and institutions — particularly Brietbart and the American Enterprise Institute — coming under greater sway of the alt right, as a new generation of young, web-savvy conservatives begin to rise to prominance within them. Alt right fans are passionate and energized, and represent an attractive demographic of readers, activists, contributors, consumers, and voters for any savvy conservative leader to harness.
At the same time, much of the alt right is defined primarily by their alienation from mainstream American politics and philosophy, with some corners possessing unapologetically hostile views towards American society and even America itself. And of course, as mentioned, there is a very real faction of the movement that is unapologetically racist, and thrives on cruelty disguised as a rejection of political correctness.
It will be interesting to watch the future of this movement, where it ultimately goes, what it ultimately becomes, and which ideas ultimately define it.
I would put a slightly different spin on the term. In general, the alt right people feel betrayed by the Republican party establishment and they feel that the establishment has no respect for them. That's one reason they're supporting Mr. Trump - they know that if he gets into power, he won't return the establishment's phone calls.
This is not unique to conservatives. As The Great RINO and DINO Hunt explains, Mr. Sanders and Ms. Warren represent somewhat the same phenomenon on the left. I don't know if there is a name for the "alternative left," but it seems to exist just as vividly and as vocally as the one on the right.
J.J's written a very good answer. Just to add my own two cents, I believe the American alternative right is inextricably tied to Richard Spencer, and the various publications he's worked on, as well as the various political positions taken in those publications, (that is Takimag & Radix Journal), though there are many other prominent figures within the movement.
Paul Gottfried, a prominent figure within the paleoconservative movement, has argued that the "alt-right" is a post-paleo movement. As the "post" implies, Gottfried believes paleos have failed in their quest to overtake neoconservatism as the dominant ideology within American conservatism, so in some ways, though the alt-right can be seen as an expansion on paleo ideas, it's also a rejection of them in other ways.
Mainstream conservatism is practically neoconservatism, and tends to be focused around neo-liberal economics, interventionist foreign policy (with very strong ties to Israel), and "blank-slate" theories on human nature. [That is many neocons share a similar outlook to mainstream liberals with regards to human nature and the intersection of sociology and biology; heck a significant amount of mainstream conservatives don't even believe in evolution!].
With regards to culture, many neoconservatives don't see The United States as an explicitly European civilization, and tend to view it in terms of what the prominent paleocon, Sam Francis, dubbed, a "proposition nation": that is, a nation built on abstract ideas like "freedom" & "democracy", rather than a nation with an ethno-cultural core.
Both paleoconservatism and the "alt-right" are rejections of neoconservatism in this sense. "HBD" - or Human Biodiversity (a term dubbed by Steve Sailer I believe) - is a very common sociobiological theory within the alt-right, that for instance, explicitly rejects the idea that race and gender are social constructs.
Another common idea within the altright, that presumably strongly stems from paleoconservatism (think Patrick Buchanan), is a rejection of "the American Empire", or "America as policeman of the world". That is, many altrighers - like paleos - tend to hold a traditional, Washingtonian, isolationist view towards foreign policy, rather than the interventionism that was promoted by Buckley's New Right. Richard Spencer himself is often invited to speak on RT about foreign policy, and has been very critical of NATO & The US.
The rejection of multiculturalism, and strong critiques of cultural/racial diversity is also prominent within the altright. This is perhaps where the white nationalist elements present themselves most prominently. Figures such as Jared Taylor, of American Renaissance, are most vocal within this regard. They consider themselves "racial realists", although their views have been regarded as "white supremacy" & "racism" by the the Southern Poverty Law Center, for instance. The altright is very supportive of white identity politics and white nationalism, and is often critical of both white individualism and universalism.
The elements of the altright that leave it in conflict with American paleoconservatism may be attributed to influences from the neo-reactionary movement, and the European New Right, (figures such as Alain De Benoist, Guillame Faye, and Aleksandr Dugin, are quite influential within altright thinking). Some of these ideas include opposition to Christianity, opposition to democracy, and even opposition to the French & American revolutions (making the altright arguably at least partially opposed to The United States of America itself!). Within these arguably more "extreme" elements, what's being opposed is primarily what's perceived as sources of egalitarianism, cosmopolitanism, and universalism.
Prominent philosophers often cited within the altright include Julius Evola, Friedrich Nietzsche, Oswald Spengler, and Martin Heidegger (though he seems to be more of a Dugin fascination).
In conclusion, the altright isn't very coherent yet, though there are some ideas that bind many of these factions - New Righters (a la Greg Johnson of Counter-Currents); white nationalists; traditionalists; neo-reactionaries; paleocons & paleolibertarians - together. The content and contributers vary, from relatively high-brow essays, to memes and satire. Whether or not this movement can seriously compete with neoconservatism and mainstream liberalism remains to be seen, but I do think it's quite interesting, even if I don't necessarily agree with everything within it. A very interesting thing to note as well is the high prevalence of youth within the movement.
The Alt-Right is a big tent movement that is still gestating. While it is made up of different tendencies, they are all being conditioned by the same influential Alt-Right media outlets (Radix, Counter-Currents, The Right Stuff) and blogs. You find Identitarians, Traditionalists and WNs all interlocked in discussion and often disagreement as well.
There is a lot of overlap with /pol/ and -chan humor in Alt-Right online communities, and strategic efforts at online trolling are a constant. Some elements from the "manosphere" have entered into the mix, though the racialized sexual politics of Roosh Alizadeh are often regarded as repugnant.
A common proposal found on the Alt-Right is the creation of a white ethnostate. A typical view proposed by The Right Stuff's Mike Enoch is that the specific economic or political system of such an ethnostate is not something that needs to be argued over at the present juncture. For example, many ex-libertarians involved in the movement can be observed indicating their comfort with living in a white social democracy, and there are many other examples of race trumping economic and political ideology on the Alt-Right. Or, as Greg Johnson often says, "truth, justice and a nice white country."
There are many ex-leftists and ex-libertarians involved in the Alt-Right, and it has proven itself extremely popular with Millennials. Unsurprisingly, there is now talk of an Alt-Left rising alongside the Alt-Right. Both phenomena are signs of the rising racial consciousness of young white Millennials in the English-speaking world and beyond.
It’s a term made up by Milo (that scamp) last March to describe neo-conservative trolls. Basically reddit energized by meth or 4Chan chilled out on tranquilizers. Their natural prey are Tumblrs, vegans, or any other weak, cucked SJW. (Hipsters are fun to play with, but not very filling.) They will mess with your mind and love to play the part of contrarian in arguments. (trolling)
People who aren’t politically correct - who actually despise political correctness. People who are economic conservatives, but very libertarian in their social views.
Right now I’m torn between accepting the alt-right brand with pride or to continue to be a Despicable Vulgarian.
Despicable Vulgarian just sounds so much cooler. I’m going to have to stick with that.
