Is anybody familiar with the emergence of “alt-right” or “new conservative” blogs like Alternative Right or Amerika.org?
If so, do you think they might be the beginnings of an intelligent, well-read, and energetic young movement away from Enlightenment virtues and democratic consensus and back toward nationalism, tribalism, male supremacy, and social darwinism?
They certainly do have a strong appeal to angry young White men, many of whom come in through the men’s rights and/or antifeminist movements.
What concerns me is that they seem to attract no attention from outside. No attention means no criticism and no debate, and these guys may just be smart enough to weasel their way to wide influence if undetected. They certainly talk a mean game, borrowing the “old” right’s strategy of framing the questioner before (or instead of) answering the question.
The Alternative Right website seems to be mostly about white supremacy. Nothing new about racists on the internet trying to justify their views through pseudoscience.
The Amerika website seems to be the deranged ramblings of a conspiracy theorist. He calls American civilization anarcho-totalitarianism. He advocates monarchism. I thought the website was a parody at first.
Nothing about either website strikes me as intelligent, well argued, or having much mainstream political appeal.
Maybe not, but they do seem to be picking up quite a lot of traffic from the men’s rights blogosphere, most of which is also rabidly ideological and rightward-leaning. Bloggers in both areas have rabble-roused readers by screeding in praise of terrorists like Anders Breivik.
So I see potential for a lot of male anger to be turned to political ends, and I’m sure the righties do, too. Whether those political ends turn out to be no more than a huge circlejerk is a possibility, although a mass national movement probably is not. But I’d hate to see it affect many men’s real-life behavior toward women, minorities, and society. That alone is frightening.
BTW, I don’t see these guys caring very much about being “well argued.” It’s enough to them to invoke historic texts, maybe a few likeminded theorists and (if you really want to impress) have a research bibliography. Their only debate tactics seem to be constant repetition of basic ideas and taking care never to engage others’ opinions on a substantive basis.
Angry young white men from men’s rights and anti feminist movements are unlikely to attract anything other than more angry young white men. Even if they get all of the angry white men there are still going to be more white men who aren’t interested in their bullshit. And without women or other minorities on board they’re never going to get very far politically.
On a small scale I could see some issues, but then I could say the same for the people who frequent StormFront or any other hate site. They’re terrible people who think terrible things and maybe some of them are going to snap someday but in any broad sense they’re completely impotent as a movement.
It’s really insulting and sexist to imply that if the message is comming from only men, it can’t be taken seriously or even listened to. The movement is just starting but here’s a woman. who’s a MRA. I’d like to see you go toe to toe with her.
What may be scary is that the right is breeding fasterthan the left.
Anecdotally, I see this to be true in my own circles. My conservative friends appear to have more kids than do my left-leaning friends. Eventually, there is likely to be more of them, so it seems.
And the current system is set up to give people more economic worries. Divide and conquer, folks…divide and conquer. The only question is who has the most balls and the least scruples.
Remember that society and distinct parts of society can’t remain stagnant - you can’t look only at the elements joining or evolving into those parts. In other words, it wouldn’t even matter if these tiny fringe movements were smarter.
On average, the right is becoming older and smaller. If you add a few thousand smart young far right people this year, it won’t stop the vast majority of them from getting 1 year older and more decrepit.
Think of it in business terms - like Fox news’ demographics. If you add 10,000 young conservatives it’s not going to be enough to stop their average viewership age from increasing to 67 from 65 (for example). On the margin those new viewers help stem the tide of conservatives growing old and dying, but it’s ultimately ineffectual.
So, no matter how smart and young these guys are, the far right is definitely getting even older and smaller, and FAST.
That said, these guys seem incredibly stupid to me.
Stupid - I don’t know. Many of them are well spoken, well read and articulate, which makes their ignorance either the product of youth or of will. Willfully ignorant people who can cop an air of authority are dangerous.
Could you quote some specific things you think are articulate or well-written or well-said? It doesn’t seem like like that to me from what you posted earlier.
Nothing stands out to me, actually. I think basically they’re verbal, idea-oriented guys who have been taught to be ashamed of their verbal skills, and they’re looking to put up an alpha front by talking about tough manly power and slamming down “facts” and “laws” in authoritarian manner with no room for debate.
That works just great when they’re in a self sustaining circle jerk like reddit or wherever the hell else they hang out. It kinda falls apart when they have to actually debate somebody who knows what they’re talking about because they’re in a place where nobody gives a fuck about their ‘manly power.’
I think maybe you’re seeing them in places where they tend to circle the wagons and congregate, and that’s giving you an impression of them that won’t hold up anywhere else.
