In the same way that we live in a post-9/11 world, we now live in a post-Charlottesville world. The damage I feared the Alt Right doing for the past two years has actually been done and now the chances of Nationalist issues getting fair hearing in the court of public opinion is seemingly reduced to nil. But what is the Alt Right? You've heard ad nauseam from their detractors in the political establishment and media, now try hearing it from a detractor in the Nationalist movement.
NOTE: If, by slim chance, you're Alt Right and reading this, please be respectful. As I've conflicted with the Alt Right on a few points I've noticed half of you are balanced and reasonable while half of you are fucking assholes. I won't engage with you if you're of the latter. I have enough unresolved issues of my own to deal with, I don't need yours.
A BRIEF Origin Story
I've been following the Alt Right since early 2015 when I became what they call "redpilled", followed a lot of their online figureheads (some, I still follow), and I've tried to get along with local Alt Right here in Ireland. I may not know this group intimately, but I've been around enough groups in my time to pick up on what exactly is going on here. So let's start from the beginning: the term Alt Right was originally coined by Dick Spencer (I feel that is a more appropriate name as he strikes me as more of a Dick than a Richard) circa 2012. He merely named a Blogspot blog Alt Right and he abandoned that when it didn't really take off. The prolific and hilarious YouTube satirist, RamZPaul (not to be confused with the equally hilarious, Rupaul), liked the term and ran with it, bringing it to popularity. Dick Spencer eventually reclaimed the name and built it as a uniting umbrella term for racially conscious pro-Whites (a group which included a small number of Jews, black people, and Persians) standing in opposition to "cuckservatives" - Conservatives who only argue on surface issues such as abortion and fiscal policy, ignoring the deeper pressing issues of social collapse and what many call #WhiteGenocide. The Alt Right took pages from the New Right, a political movement in Europe completely devoid of racism and sexism. The term was nifty and corporate, and so as umbrella movements do, it gradually expanded in include everyone from the "race mixer" Gavin McInnes to the nutcases of Stormfront. The reader should bear this in mind when thinking about the events of Charlottesville. The Alt Right isn't an organisation, a political theory, or anything centralised. It's purely a banner that just about anyone can find refuge under and potentially hijack. On that line of thought it should be noted that the sole organiser of "United the Right" previously had been an Obama supporter and the maniac in the car was an enthusiastic Hillary Clinton supporter. Things are messier than the mainstream media allows for.
Related Post: The Case for Unlimited Free Speech in Face of Extremism
My Backgroundt
NOTE: I first need to outline for you my motivations for getting involved with the Alt Right so you can better understand why I'll say what I'll say about them. Please be patient because this exercise is useless without a backstory.
In the Summer of 2015 I watched in horror as the results of the West's neoliberal warmongering came to fruition and millions of Arabs and Africans began to flood into Europe. My personal conviction was that this was planned as the great leader Muammar Gaddafi of Libya was deposed and anally raped to death with a bayonet (much to the amusement of Hillary Clinton) allowing an unstoppable stream of Africans to be human trafficked across the sea into Europe. The democratic leadership of Bashar al-Assad was made inept by the relentless bombing of Syrian cities and army units while the Isreali/Saudi/American-backed "ISIS" and the Ameican-supported White Helmets terrorized the citizenry. It was clear to me from day one that everyone in ISISs' path were in distress, but it was also clear to me that this was being used as an excuse to flood Europe with un-like peoples, not only genuine refugees from the Levant but Economic Migrants from Africa. It didn't make sense to me that the Geneva Convention specifically stipulated that refugees should be hosted in the first stable nation they reach, yet Israel (a signatory of the Convention) enjoyed the liberty of only allowing entrance to WHITE Jews. It didn't make sense to me that a foreign power (responsible for this fallout) dictated that my tiny island of Ireland takes "its share" of these migrants, citing our skin colour and the history of oppression against these people, even though my people were fighting against our own colonization up until 1937 and have been working in solidarity with these people ever since. It angered me that these people, foisted upon the natives of Europe, began a campaign of rape against our women and children. If you're thinking this is "far right propaganda" or hyperbole, these 1,000s of events were recorded by mainstream media. I was angry that our nation's character was being eroded and by insults such as an RTÉ (state broadcaster) sponsored event, a black man was depicted in a modern interpretation of our ancient mythological story of Chuchulainn. I was angry at the GERMAN President of Dublin City University proclaiming that the Irish will be an ethnic minority on their own island by 2050, BEFORE the "migrant crisis" even began. I was angered by his proclamation that this is a good thing and must be accepted " if we are to remain prosperous." At the time I was still in contact with my African-American wife via long-distance who was initially appalled by what she thought of as my new-found racism, which I'll admit I was beginning to fall prey to, but which she reasoned me out of. Yet she was still pro-multiculturalism and pro-immigration. I had asked her "How would you feel is a million white people landed on an African shore because they wanted to escape Europe and demanded refuge?" to which she responded "That already happened! South Africa!" "Well, then" I continued "what, ideally, should have been done to those Dutch settlers who landed there? Shouldn't they have been gotten rid of?" Seemingly like magic, she saw the light. Back in the days of trans-continental colonialism, the African and the Native American were unable or unwilling to fight back the invader. Today, the European is disallowed by legislation and an ideology of self-hate.
What alarmed herself more, as much as it alarmed me, was her time here in Ireland being constantly invaded by American pop culture. In every store and on every television set, American music and TV programming was constantly being pumped through. Irishness only existed as a token gesture and was slowly being replaced by Americanism and multiculturalism. This creeping realisation would feed into my disaffection with the Alt Right, particularly as I was gravitating more towards Europe's "New Right."
My Time With the Alt Right
When I decided that enough was enough I started a YouTube channel and bought IrishIdentitarian.com in order to publicize my views. Someone found me through that and introduced me to a private Skype group. In there I found a variety of people who came together for the united cause of stopping Ireland from being flooded and destroyed. In there were "Neo-Nazis", regular traditionalists, Anarcho-Capitalists etc etc. We disagreed on a variety of things and were able to have conversations about them to a point. One evening the subject of marijuana legalization was being discussed with very few facts being introduced from either side of the argument, just anecdotal thoughts. I found myself, as per usual, in the middle and largely undecided, arguing against the position that marijuana smokers are just wasters with nothing to offer society. I argued that it effects everyone differently. The conversation devolved into hostility from the "No" camp (the stereotypical "neo-nazis") to the point where one of them, speaking to me, claimed: "I hear you sparking up all the time on your radio show." A low blow to a supposed ally which boiled my blood. Of course I lost the rag on him as I declared that I'm a chain smoker of cigarettes, and smoker of "rollies" which require frequent lighting if one doesn't constantly drag on them to keep them lit. But that didn't matter. What mattered was scoring a point for one's own hardcore stance.
The environment was toxic and self-defeating. After the honeymoon period passed I realised this was a group of men, some young and some old, reassuring themselves of how fucked the world is by sharing news articles proving Europe's demise in the face of the invasion. I've been here before. As a seasoned conspiracy theorist I would stumble across or be invited to various online communities over the years where the status quo was to share news pieces and YouTube videos with each other, scaring each other into paralysis. In other words, echo chambers.
Echo chamber is a brilliant descriptor of the Alt Right. Because of their social proximity to each other and their rejection of social contacts who don't hold their beliefs (not a feature unique to the Alt Right) they incestuously develop extreme positions and kick out the minority who don't agree or are unafraid of speaking out. I'll address this phenomenon on the macro-scale later and stick with my personal story for now. I broke the echo chamber on many occasions, the most notable was in 2016 which drew a lot of flack as well as a lot of praise, but most importantly triggered conversation, with the release of my video and article, I'm Not White, I'm Irish which argued against using the racial distinction of whiteness anywhere but the New World and suggested that the Irish have a distinct and esteemed history worthy of individual consideration. This spelled the beginning of the end of my relationship with the Alt Right as it taught me that dissenting views on the particulars of race were not welcome and taught the Alt Right that I will not silently go along with their program. By the end of Summer 2016 the intellectually dominant members of the Skype group had created another group to filter out dissenters. I know this because a friend of mine had added me to this group, then removed me, then messaged me to apologize as he had not "gotten permission" to do so.
The Alt Right Today
To understand this social movement you must understand two defining principals: "Don't Be a Cuck" and "Don't Punch Right." To be a cuck is to claim to be Conservative yet ultimately do nothing to protect traditional values, institutions, or your own ethnicity/race from extinction. To punch to the Right is to level criticism at or ridicule anyone on the Right... or, more accurately, to your Right. Even though these principals are invoked from time to time, they are not laws that are overtly imposed on the movement, but instead they are the unconscious M.O. of the movement. This causes a range of problems that have led to an out-of-control Purity Spiral into absolute Fascism/Nazism. For me, I found myself "punched" quite frequently for voicing my own opinions, and "punched" yet again for "Punching to the Right" by criticizing the extremists within the movement. So, what really ended up happening is a lot of "punching to the Left." This expressed itself on the macro-scale twice, and most recently with the rise of the distinction "Alt Lite" when the definition of "cuck" expanded to include everyone but absolute racists and sexists. This self-sabotaging principal of not punching to the Right is still alive and well today as the Charlottesville march was marred by the presence of ONE GUY with a Nazi flag, marching alongside the Confederate flags (who, the the way, was doxxed by "Yes You're Racist," only to reveal his identity as an FBI agent). If the marchers had the same sense as those attending the pro-Trump rallies they'd have told this guy (in the words of Millennial Woes) to "pack up or fuck off." Outside of a forensic investigation, we honestly can't tell if these demonstrators are Nazis themselves or simply protecting their movement's cohesion by not making Nazis feel unwelcome. Either way, it doesn't look good.
Today, everyone I respect, both personally and otherwise, do not call themselves Alt Right (except Millennial Woes). My personal friends here in Ireland even ditched the term years ago or simply never identified that way to begin with, but nonetheless associate with those who do. It's the hopes of one particular friend of mine to be able to inject more philosophical and nuanced ideas into this online group. It appears to be a dying term, with many considering setting it on fire and moving on.
Conclusion
Admittedly I haven't represented all the little tiny moving parts that makes up the Alt Right, but I've described the prime motivated forces behind it and those which dominated and (ultimately) destroyed it. It was never made for mass public consumption, but rather a four year-running collective therapy session for America's dispossessed youth. Maybe it wasn't "supposed" to go anywhere (in the divine plan kinda way), but instead be what a commenter on my 2016 - Year Review of Irish Nationalism video called "a deployment strategy":
Na Déithe is Bandéithe duit féin a chara!
Source: giphy
You touch on a great many good points on the right as well as the left. Your article has given me a great deal to think about.
Labels I believe are the problem. By many, one is either considered a leftist or right-wing. What about those who are more moderate? I am meaning those who try to understand the argument on both sides of the political spectrum.
I am not educated enough to comment on many of the topics of your article, but I see it as a very good read. Nothing in this world is black and white, but a shade of gray.
Thanks for the article and have a great week.
Thanks for the thoughtful reply! You're absolutely correct. I really should have included how the Alt Right often called me a Leftist and the Left often called me a racist, but I didn't want to make the whole thing about myself.
Déithe duit!
Na Déithe is Bandéithe duit féin a chara!