The problem with the Alt-right on the internet is that they often are just trolls trying to be as offensive as possible.
The actual alt-right political movement is just a very small group. I don't think many outside of that small group actually hold the racist and misogynistic views that are expressed on these forums. It's often just backlash at the rapid change in culture. People want to break the new rules of discourse.
The bigger problem is genuine right wing views then get lumped in with the alt-right. Speakers like Ben Shapiro get called alt-right when their views are not racist or misogynistic. Before long people view many right wing views as hate speech. The more they do that the more people react by saying actually hateful things as a backlash. And so the divide grows.
I think worrying about the alt right is similar to worrying about antifa. Both seem to be fringe minority groups that get disproportionate amount of media attention. I've never met anyone in real life who claimed to be alt right, or repeated alt right talking points.
What makes someone Alt Right, if I might ask? I've only heard about it via Facebook and it's being painted as fringe extremist stuff there, but absolutely everyone is crazy on Facebook right now. I'd rather hear it from someone who considers themselves part of it.
Because in online circles, the 'alt-right' has basically become synonymous with white nationalism, advocacy for an ethnostate and/or belief in a Jewish conspiracy.
The problem is that large portions of the alt-right ideology goes outside of politics into racism, misogyny, and harassment and it makes sense to keep a community with those traits under close surveillance. My view on the alt right is that there is a line between reasonable political views and spreading prejudice against certain demographics and the alt right really walks that line (I haven't been on this discord but a good example is the r/the_donald subreddit).
I've watched the so-called alt-right develop online over the past 2-3 decades. Usenet, Live Journal, Encyclopedia Dramatica, the chans, etc. At least at the start, it was mostly about trolling and lulz. The anger of TFWNG.
But somehow it's been captured by the actual right wing. That's frightening. There's a lotta young male angst out there.
There is no “alt-right”; they’re just the far right. “Alt-right” was just cool new branding for the same ethnonationalist crap that’s always been around.
Your delusion is that you associate everyone on these platforms with the alt-right because some of them are alt-right. The reason alt-right flock to those platforms is because they are de-platformed elsewhere. This does not make the non alt-right people on those platforms suddenly become alt-right.
And the reason "alt-right" and "racist troll" mean nothing is because they are used so liberally where they do not apply, and a few minutes of investigation would conclude that they do not apply. Consistent incorrect usage of language applied to something that it is not makes them lose their meaning.
A solution to the "adhering to free speech" would be to allow free speech on platforms, and make it clear what is or isn't allowed on the platform, instead of using vague terms like "hate speech", which could be literally anything that some person finds undesirable.
Have you seen any of the alt-right communities? The alt-right is not your traditional conservative.
It's not a preconceived notion that /r/the_donald is filled to the brim with hate speech and trolls. You simply have to go there and look for yourself.
There isn't really alt-right not at least in the sense its portrait. People who lean right and don't agree with old republican base seem to be portrait as such.
Alt-right is a term devoid of meaning, it has been abused so badly and so often. No one can agree on what it means, so it cannot be parsed as anything more than "those people I don't like, who entertain bad thoughts."
They might not be "alt right", but they're really fascinated by it. Here's Timcast:
Propaganda, tribalism, and Ben Shapiro in Berkeley
The Alt-Left double standard.
What is bit coin and can you still make money by investing?
Here's the second user:
Pewdiepie did nothing wrong. Anyone acting offended is probably lying through their teeth.
The people who know/care about Shapiro are conservative, same goes for those defending a guy who makes jokes about Jews and uses the n-word.
Your third user just happens to "retweet" the first. It's a very small and focused community there. Also from the last user:
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The "alt-right" is the natural reaction to the bombardment of progressive leftism (for lack of a better concept) perpetrated initially by the media and now by mainstream society in general, including silicon valley.
Most of these alt-righters aren't educated enough to articulate a good ideological response to this bombardment, but they know that people are being manipulated, and the best thing they can do is state the complete opposite (or what they see as the complete opposite) to what progressive media says, which makes them be this way.
Another thing to consider is the hypocrisy with which most people criticize the "alt-right", but don't even bat an eye when the 'progressives' act the same way.
When mainstream society becomes reasonable again, alt-righters and similar movements will disappear.
It’s not that someone would switch to the alt-right, it’s that the definition of belief is moving the line so others are defining you as alt-right. As an example, Ben Shapiro is by statements and beliefs not alt-right. He was attacked by them quite a bit. Yet, people have started calling him alt-right in media and forums.
I too would never cross that line, but I believe others will be happy to redraw that line regardless of my actual beliefs. This is what happens when others can slap labels on you and there is no real debate.
The actual alt-right political movement is just a very small group. I don't think many outside of that small group actually hold the racist and misogynistic views that are expressed on these forums. It's often just backlash at the rapid change in culture. People want to break the new rules of discourse.
The bigger problem is genuine right wing views then get lumped in with the alt-right. Speakers like Ben Shapiro get called alt-right when their views are not racist or misogynistic. Before long people view many right wing views as hate speech. The more they do that the more people react by saying actually hateful things as a backlash. And so the divide grows.
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