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« on: October 10, 2020, 03:59:30 AM »
Okay I'll humor you, although I doubt anybody on this forum does not have an idea of what the alt-right is and what alt-right means.
Alt-Right --- term coined by Paul Gottfried in 2008 after a paper published entitled The Decline and Rise of the Alternative Right. The term has been widely popularized and turbocharged by noted white supremacist Richard Spencer (seen here being punched in the face because ya know, nazis gonna nazi).
Admittedly, the term is "ill-defined" but generally refers to a the loose collective of groups which espouse and support ideas of white nationalism, white supremacism, white separatism, anti-immigration, pro-racism, anti-zionism and anti-semitism, holocaust denial, antifeminism, trans-phobia, homophobia, and islamophobia. Wow not a great list to be attached to. Groups using the self-appointed alt-right label are generally characterized as HATE GROUPS.
So now we know something of what the alt-right is, and some of what it believes. This is not a comprehensive list but I am happy to provide further studies if you or anybody else desires.
Violence --- Does the alt-right, by definition, involve violence. In my view American Conservatism is violence. The alt-right is a step further and so has to be more violent. Notably, my definition of violence may be different than yours.
The trajectory of the alt-right is to gently guide its followers further and further down the rabbit hole, swallowing red pill after red pill. With the majority of members being white, cis-het, males, the red pills swallowed tend to be about jewish conspiracies, holocaust denial, downplaying of slavery and the crusades, that feminism is about crushing men rather than elevating women to where men currently stand, sandy-hook truthers, reverse racism, economic precarity being caused by immigrants, and so on.
Many, I am sure, are aware that having a nebulous "other" to unite against is a compelling rallying cry for people. The alt-right provides many such "others" to rally against. The alt-right also, curiously, utilizes the fascist rhetoric that the nebulous other is simultaneously all-powerful and weak/unfit/sub-human (examples include Mexicans are coming to take our jobs, but Mexicans are also lazy; Jewish people control essentially all major corporations and governments in the world, but are also sub-human. Take your pick, there are many options.)
With the "other" provided, hatred abounds. Take 5 minutes to go browse /pol/ on 4chan, or save yourself the pain and trust me. Hatred and fear lead to violence. An excellent example of this is that hate crimes against Asian-Americans have been on the rise during the covid19 pandemic -- so much so that scientists have published journal articles about it). So once again, with an "other" provided (and that "other" including but not limited to women, LGBTQ+, immigrants, muslims, jewish people), fear and hatred flow. Young, white, cis-het men are told they are valuable for being white and cis-het. They are left to froth in their own anger. Violence follows: there has been an explosion of alt-right hate groups as tracked by the Southern Poverty Law Center -- 55% increase in white nationalist hate groups since 2017 and 43% increase in anti-LGBTQ+ hate groups in 2019 alone. And according to the SPLC hate crimes reached a 5 year high in 2015 as Trump marched towards the White House. According to Justice.gov hate crimes in 2017 reached numbers not seen since 2008, 2018 down slightly from 2017 and 2019 numbers not out yet. Another fun fact: for years provided by justice.gov, the year with the highest hate crime rate was 2001. Hmm, I wonder what happened that year for it to see such a spike?
The alt-right is a breeding ground for "lone wolves". If a person is unable to escape from the clutches of the alt-right there are generally 3 outcomes: nihilism/the black pill, becoming a "lone wolf", or joining a "militia" group or other hate group whose violence that person finds tolerable (i.e. "I find actually harming people to be too much for me, but I don't mind screaming racial slurs at hispanic American citizens and telling them to go back to their country.")
Edit: I would also like to add that among those who commit "lone wolf" type violence, many evoke reverence for the memes, hand signals, gestures, hashtags, and common talking points/phrases that the alt-right traffic in. We know that the alt-right radicalized him, the issue becomes did the alt-right tell him to do that. And generally the answer is no. There was no single directive issued by the alt-right to go out and shoot people. I would argue this is more plausible deniability on the part of alt-right leaders. They have clearly been enticing young men towards violence. But stopping short of saying lets go murder people, they cannot be charged with anything.
And another caveat: you can find videos of alt-right leaders talking on their podcasts/radio shows actually advocating for murder.