Posted on 03/30/2016 4:11:45 PM PDT by all the best
A specter is haunting the dinner parties, fundraisers and think-tanks of the Establishment: the specter of the alternative right. Young, creative and eager to commit secular heresies, they have become public enemy number one to beltway conservatives more hated, even, than Democrats or loopy progressives.
The alternative right, more commonly known as the alt-right, is an amorphous movement. Some mostly Establishment types insist its little more than a vehicle for the worst dregs of human society: anti-Semites, white supremacists, and other members of the Stormfront set. Theyre wrong.
Previously an obscure subculture, the alt-right burst onto the national political scene in 2015. Although initially small in number, the alt-right has a youthful energy and jarring, taboo-defying rhetoric that have boosted its membership and made it impossible to ignore.
It has already triggered a string of fearful op-eds and hit pieces from both Left and Right: Lefties dismiss it as racist, while the conservative press, always desperate to avoid charges of bigotry from the Left, has thrown these young readers and voters to the wolves as well.
National Review attacked them as bitter members of the white working-class who worship father-Führer Donald Trump. Betsy Woodruff of The Daily Beast attacked Rush Limbaugh for sympathising with the white supremacist alt-right. BuzzFeed begrudgingly acknowledged that the movement has a great feel for how the internet works, while simultaneously accusing them of targeting blacks, Jews, women, Latinos and Muslims.
The amount of column inches generated by the alt-right is a testament to their cultural punch. But so far, no one has really been able to explain the movements appeal and reach without desperate caveats and virtue-signalling to readers.
(Excerpt) Read more at breitbart.com ...
Time to bump this back to the top... My take is that while there are some elements of the alt-right I would rather not be associated with, I find myself in agreement with the more rational aspects as described in this article.
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