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Why do so many of you use the term “alt right”?

Elegant Weapon

Elegant Weapon

Member
Oct 31, 2017
6,748
Like, it's just the right. "Alt-right" was coined by Richard Spencer to make being right wing seem cooler, so why do so many of you indulge that?

I don't get it. It's like y'all respect their right to identify as extremists... as if the fact that these right wing assholes are willing to say the quiet part out loud really make them so "alternative"

What really is the point of accommodating their attempt to rebrand?
 
shnurgleton

shnurgleton

Member
Oct 27, 2017
15,864
Boston
it's an easy shorthand to refer specifically to neo nazis and channer edgelords and incels. kind of different from your run of the mill republican
 
Froyo Love

Froyo Love

Banned
Oct 28, 2017
1,503
The attempt at stealth rebranding far-right views got outed around Charlottesville, so now it's become a useful and mostly neutral descriptor for a particular strain of contemporary right-wing extremism.
 
Prophet Five

Prophet Five

Pundeath Knight
Member
Nov 11, 2017
7,692
The Great Dark Beyond
What a stupid thing to complain about.

When someone says "alt right" you know exactly who and what they mean. You're trying to argue semantics here to just sound more intelligent than other people on the internet.
 

Deleted member 48897

User requested account closure
Banned
Oct 22, 2018
13,623
I mean I do prefer stuff like "nazi shithead" personally but on the other hand using their own term against them is a good way of reclaiming their attempt to rebrand themselves as the socially acceptable, tweed-dressed alternative to your grandpa's favorite genocidal maniacs
 
Acorn

Acorn

Member
Oct 25, 2017
10,972
Scotland
The alt right rebranding failed, when you say alt right now to most people they think loner Nazis not "whoa those cool dudes".
 
Ithil

Ithil

Member
Oct 25, 2017
23,395
Because it's failed at that goal, it's now a highly negative word, to the point that they're fleeing from that too. People like Spencer now insist they aren't "alt right" because "alt right" means "neo nazi fuck".
 

Deleted member 17402

User requested account closure
Banned
Oct 27, 2017
7,125
Here I thought this thread would be about the overuse of the term and mislabeling of anyone and everyone who disagrees with certain people as being alt-right.
 
tsampikos

tsampikos

Banned
Oct 27, 2017
2,613
A good question to ask around the gamer gate era when it was first becoming mainstream rightwing bullshit

Kind of asinine to ask now

The main reason why its still used is because in a discussion they will instantly dismiss you and used canned arguments if you start calling them white nationalists and nazis just as surely as you will dismiss anyone who identifies as white nationalists and nazis
 
pigeon

pigeon

Member
Oct 25, 2017
5,447
Yeah nowadays I think of alt-right as a meaningful subgroup of Nazi and sometimes it's useful to distinguish that. But Nazi is still appropriate and sometimes necessary for clarity!
 
The Albatross

The Albatross

Member
Oct 25, 2017
39,054
Eh, just because a member of the alt-right community came up with the name, it doesn't disqualify it. A member of the Ku Klux Klan came up with the name "Ku Klux Klan," a member of the Nazi party in Germany came up with the shorthand 'Nazi,' al-Bagdhadi came up with the name 'Islamic State in Syria' but we all refer to the terrorist organization as 'ISIS' (some insist on Daesh or whatever, but coloquially, most don't). The Tea Party called themselves the Tea Party before anybody else did. GamerGaters called themselves GamerGaters before I did.

Just because the group pens the name doesn't mean it's disqualified from being used derisively to describe them by critics.

I call them "the alt-right" because I think it's an inflection point in the American conservative movement, just as the Tea Party was, and Neoconservatism was, and the Religious Right, Rockefeller Republicanism, John Birch, and any other movement within American conservatism before it.
 
Loanshark

Loanshark

Member
Nov 8, 2017
1,637
TheFallenSaboteur said:
Here I thought this thread would be about the overuse of the term and mislabeling of anyone and everyone who disagrees with certain people as being alt-right.
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Yeah this is certainly part of why its been used to much around here. Its very useful as a pejorative to shock someone into backing down. Not unlike how a person would be called "commie" historically if they critiziced any part of say, american hypercapitalism.
 
makonero

makonero

Member
Oct 27, 2017
9,669
It was very nice of Richard Spencer to give us a term to use to refer to these racist sexist incel assholes who shit up the internet with their propaganda and Trump-living bullshit. Neonazi isn't as useful since it has certain connotations that go back to the fifties and sixties. alt-right allows us to picture them as they truly are.
 
Mr. X

Mr. X

Member
Oct 25, 2017
5,495
Alt right = the style of white supremacy that wears suits and sounds like faux intellectuals

Like teaparty is to identify a particular type of right wing nutjob as well
 
Umbrella Carp

Umbrella Carp

Banned
Jan 16, 2019
3,265
Elegant Weapon said:
Mainstream republicans are already extremists.

Neo Nazis, edgelords and incels are just regular run of the mill republicans, regardless of what websites they use
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I had a post already written out disagreeing with you, but then I realized thinking that Trump and his ilk don't run in the DNA of the modern Republican party now is just naive nonsense. They are driving the loony bus, and they'll still be behind the wheel when it hits the wall.
 
RadzPrower

RadzPrower

One Winged Slayer
Member
Jan 19, 2018
6,051
Because I know people who are right wing, but they're not nuts. Misguided perhaps, but not extremists.
 
Ashlette

Ashlette

Member
Oct 28, 2017
3,254
The "alt-right" refers to idiots who eat up conspiracy theories targeted against marginalized groups. Crap like "the great replacement" and "the great awakening". They are different enough to warrant a different name.
 

Deleted member 17402

User requested account closure
Banned
Oct 27, 2017
7,125
Velocity:Design:Comfort said:
That repeating talking points from Ben Shapiro as a criticism of some amorphous left wing is not going to be well received here.
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What talking points are you referring to? I've never listened to that person. I said people incorrectly label others as alt-right when they don't agree with certain people. Are you that certain person? You had no idea who I was even referring to. You automatically jumped to some garbage about Ben Shapiro and an amorphous left wing when that's not what I was implying at all.

I've read posts of people on here and elsewhere who automatically label something as alt-right if it has conservatism baked into it. My idea of alt-right as I've come to understand it is more extreme than just that.
 
Croc Man

Croc Man

Member
Oct 27, 2017
2,546
Regular right is a passive "fuck you, got mine" attitude.
Alt-right is just "fuck you".

Big generalisation but active hate is the main thing that makes it alt-right. Both groups may share similar largely similar views in some respects but the reason behind them and how they're expressed can be very different.
 
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Hella

Hella

Member
Oct 27, 2017
23,410
The term backfired, because it's become a catch-all for all the deplorable groups making up the right. It's a universally negative label that tells you everything you need to know about a person.

The usual alt-right play of relying on semantics or twisting words won't work when the alt-right is represented foremost by murderous extremists. Ain't no spinning that straightforward brand of evil.
 
Kthulhu

Kthulhu

Member
Oct 25, 2017
14,670
The rebranding failed. Everyone knows what alt right means now. It's not seen as a more moderate ideology anymore.
 
OrangeNova

OrangeNova

Member
Oct 30, 2017
12,671
Canada
Because Richard Spencer got really public after the punch and Charlottesville, the term backfired and is basically synonymous with Neo-Nazi.

And centrist people don't get butthurt about calling them nazis.
 
Doomsayer

Doomsayer

Banned
Oct 25, 2017
2,621
Because there are still Republicans that dislike Trump and don't buy into all the bullshit they are selling?

Why remove nuance from conversation?
 
OP
OP
Elegant Weapon

Elegant Weapon

Member
Oct 31, 2017
6,748
Ashlette said:
The "alt-right" refers to idiots who eat up conspiracy theories targeted against marginalized groups. Crap like "the great replacement" and "the great awakening". They are different enough to warrant a different name.
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I'm pretty sure that's regular republican shit.

Hating Black Lives Matter because all lives matter except blue lives matter... "police are under attack in this country" "it's hard to be a white man right now", etc... regular republican shit
 
Griffith

Griffith

Banned
Oct 27, 2017
5,585
I honestly don't care what we call them as long as the association continues to be to that of a cesspool of human indecency.

They coin terms to try to harm the image of left-wing people all the time and the US President is almost their cheer-leader in that regard, with the amount of nicknames he's come up for anyone who does anything that upsets him. Why is it that the one time we coin a term that has become derrogatory in its meaning we are meant to feel bad about it?

Edit: I misinterpreted the original question, I need coffee.
 
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Alucrid

Alucrid

Chicken Photographer
Member
Oct 25, 2017
11,440
TheFallenSaboteur said:
What talking points are you referring to? I've never listened to that person. I said people incorrectly label others as alt-right when they don't agree with certain people. Are you that certain person? You had no idea who I was even referring to. You automatically jumped to some garbage about Ben Shapiro and an amorphous left wing when that's not what I was implying at all.

I've read posts of people on here and elsewhere who automatically label something as alt-right if it has conservatism baked into it. My idea of alt-right as I've come to understand it is more extreme than just that.
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who hurt labeled you alt right
 
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