Back in college, at Cornell in the mid-eighties, I once enjoyed the distinct displeasure of being stuck in a discussion section with Ann Coulter. Not someone who looked or sounded or acted like Ann Coulter, but the actual Ann Coulter.
If you’ve ever seen her on TV, and I suppose most of you have, the experience was, well, pretty much exactly like that. At the time, Coulter had built herself a reputation on campus as a right-wing provocateur, and she took more or less the same approach in class; I remember her going on and on and on in one class session about Martin Luther King’s alleged crypto-Communism.
I had pretty much forgotten all about her when, towards the end of the next decade, I flipped to a cable news channel and bam, there she was. And she’s been there, on TV and in American political life, ever since.
I found myself thinking back on this experience as I watched Hillary Clinton’s speech this week attacking Trump for his ties with the alt-right. Suddenly a bunch of the fringe characters I’ve been obsessively following on this little blog for years have pushed themselves (with a major assist from Donald Trump) into the center of our political discourse.
There was Hillary, essentially doing what I’ve been doing here for six years now, reading out some of Milo Yiannopoulos’ worst headlines on Breitbart and mordently mocking their sheer awfulness.
On the one hand, I’m glad to see Hillary taking on these guys, and doing so with so much energy and skill.
On the other hand, it’s deeply troubling that she had to make the speech in the first place, that Pepe-posting Nazi shitlords have managed to garner so much attention so quickly, transforming what had been a weird internet sideshow into something approaching an actual threat to the Republic.
While some alt-righters purport to be indignant about Hillary’s alleged “lies,” most are clearly thrilled to be getting the attention. “After this week, there is little doubt that we Alt-Right shitlords are making history,” the neo-Nazi Infostormer blog happily proclaimed.
The evil bitch Hillary Clinton and current Democrat nominee for President of the United States dedicated an entire 30 minute plus speech to attacking our movement. Something like this would have been entirely unfathomable just a few years ago.
He’s got that right.
While we have accomplished much in a very short time, there is still much to do. In the very near future, we will be taking back control of our nations and restoring them to greatness. … I believe that this is something that is going to happen much sooner than anyone thinks. Jewish Marxism is a dying political philosophy and we are here to put the final nails in its coffin.
Hail Victory!
Over on a site called The Atlantic Centurion, alt-right blogger Lawrence Murray offered a similar assessment.
One of the most powerful people in the world spoke for a half hour about an internet movement of White nationalist blogs and Twitter trolls. The Archbishop of the Catlady Ascendancy herself addressed the White heresy known as the Alt-Right. In the flesh. Are we winning the meme war or what?
Commenters across the political spectrum have made much of Hillary’s fairly obvious attempt, in her speech, to lure longtime Republicans who feel uncomfortable with Trump’s racism into voting for her.
On the alt-right Radix Journal, Hannibal Bateman (presumably not his real name) suggested that Hillary was trying to appoint herself the new leader of America’s conservatives — sorry, cuckservatives.
Hillary and her allies are making a play for a one party state. Her wing of the managerial elite hope to absorb what elements it can from the GOP and cast the rest to what it calls, “the outer fringes.” …
Like the Borg, Hillary wants to assimilate the cuckservatives. …
She’s making a direct plea for Conservatism Inc. to merge with her rather than risk a hostile takeover by the Alt-Right.
As Bateman’s sees it, this is good for bitcoin the alt-right. If conservatives — sorry, cuckservatives — desert the Republican party to join up with Hillary, the alt-right will become the standard-bearer for pissed-off white folks, at least in Bateman’s rather fanciful view.
Americans, especially White Americans, are angry. Rightly so: while the “right” got its tax cuts and tax-free foundations White America has been slowly dispossessed and demoralized. …
Conservatism is dead. Its new standard bearer is Hillary Clinton.
As for us, we will offer Whites, not just in America, but the world over, a real alternative.
Morgoth, of Morgoth’s Review, had a similar take. Declaring himself “surprised” at Hillary’s attempt to win over the “cuckservative Right of American politics,” Morgoth compared the situation, somewhat awkwardly, to Europe’s refugee crisis.
The post-Trump Republican party has its own refugee crisis, and Hilary is doing a Merkel by offering them a place at her sagging bosom, alongside the inter-sectional Trannies, Black Lives Matter and ISIS.
Wait, ISIS is a wing of the Democratic party?
Morgoth even managed to work in a reference to a classic Arnold Schwarzenegger film.
Strictly speaking, [the cuckservatives] aren’t just ‘Cucks’ they’ve been cucked over twice! they were cucked when they sat in silence as ‘minorities’ became majorities, then they were cucked again when Trump, Nationalism and the Alt-Right overran their party. All that’s left for them now, and Hillary and her handlers know it, is to join the ranks of a party explicitly and openly anti-White, they’ll be absorbed into the main putrid mass of the Politically Correct Left to live out a life as a minor appendage, like Quato from Total Recall.
Dude, get your references right! Quato may have been a parasitic twin growing out of his brother’s torso, but he was also the leader of the whole damn resistance!
The biggest complaint of the hardcore alt-righters at the moment? That Hillary and the media are talking a lot more about Breitbart (and its poster boy Milo Yiannopoulos) than they are about, say, The Daily Stormer. This focus has an obvious logic to it, given that Trump just hired Breitbart’s former top banana as his campaign CEO.
But the hardcore alt-righters don’t quite see it this way. In their view, it’s all about the Jews. In a post that came out just before Hillary’s speech, Infostormer complained that the “Jew Media [is] Falsely Declaring That Homosexual Jew Milo Yiannapolous Is Leading Alt-Right Nazism.”
This, Infostormer believes, is an obvious attempt by sneaky Jews to shut down discussion of Jewish sneakiness, or something,
The Alt-Right has become such a major political force that it was impossible for them to continue ignoring us. Our victories have become far too numerous to count.
Their new strategy is to try and redefine the Alt-Right as a movement led by the homosexual Jew Milo Yiannapolous.
And Infostormer is having none of it.
The goal of promoting this Jew faggot as the face of the Alt-Right is to limit the scope of debate. Specifically, they want to ensure that the Jewish question is not brought up. … Milo being both a degenerate faggot and a kike will certainly never bring up the Jewish question.
The Jews want the general public to believe that the Alt-Right is some kind of goofy White nationalist movement that has no real issue with Jews or homosexuals. …
In reality … the Alt-Right is … an uncompromising White nationalist movement which is both anti-Jew and anti-homosexual. None of us believe that a homosexual Jew like Milo should be leading such a movement.
So apparently they don’t like gays or Jews? Who knew?
The real question here is whether or not the alt-right will live up to the fantasies of its proponents — replacing the so-called cuckservatives as the standard-bearers of the right in America and possibly even assuming a major role in a Trump presidency (shudder). Are they going to become a permanent part of the mainstream political landscape, like Ann Coulter?
Or is the sudden rise of the alt-right a more fleeting phenomena — something akin to an extinction burst, driven by the anger of reactionary whites, mostly male, who can’t deal with the realities of an increasingly diverse America in which white people will ultimately become a minority.
I think, and I certainly hope, it’ll be the latter. We should plan to do everything we can to hasten their departure from the national political stage.
I’m going to join in the group who has little to no sympathy for Milo. I don’t want him to get physically hurt by these buttwaffles, but if they start dog piling him somehow (now that he’s gone from their platform of choice) I won’t shed many tears.
What is killing me is how many of these twits think this speech is a -good- thing for their image. Or t he number of alt right douches since then who have tried to argue with me that, “NO WE AREN’T RACIST but please have a look at our racist ideology! THAT IS NOT RACIST HOW DARE YOU YOU ARE THE REAL RACIST.”
Maybe now the media and the public in general will snap out of the “it’s just an opinion” fugue it seems to be in and start making these shit weasels answer for their words which DO damage.
@Mish
It looks good on you.
I’m totally jealous.
@David Futrelle
Echoing Dodom, in the context of this discussion “shit down” is completely understandable but still a typo.
@Dalilama
You’re assuming there is sense to be made, somewhere on the summit of Bullshit-Mountain.
There isn’t.
Now he isn’t. The puritans are a tiny minority of the modern alt-right. Part of the reason Milos gaggle of trogledytes are succesful at growing their numbers is the “plausible” denialability of their racism, sexism, homophobia et.c (amongst themselves anyway). This is motivated by how few and far between the honest neo-nazis are.
If the Daily Stormer crowd embraced Milo, on the other hand, then you’d see some shake-ups happening.
I know it’s counter-intuitive. But that’s the alt-right for you.
@ Kat, Axe
Thank you, thank you … but I owe it all to the lovely helpful chap quoted above 😀
@ Gert
I read and re-read that excerpt from Milo (couldn’t handle actually listening to him) and my head hurts. Is he saying that anti-semitism is real (and bad), unlike sexism and racism, but the “real racists” don’t actually understand anti-semitism? And those “real racists” are simultaneously very, very serious (like, proper researchers, and everything), and naive, dorky, and young? And, and, despite being ‘dorky’ and really smart, they’ve never been educated about the Holocaust? So when they’re anti-semitic they’re … not actually anti-semitic? And Jewish reporters are falling for this devious plan by assuming that anti-semitic taunts are in fact anti-semitic? And this achieves what?
Nope, can’t do it anymore :(.
The fact that they think of it as a “meme war” is why they will never have any actual power.
And is that last guy seriously trying to argue that jews are trying to slander white nationalists as pro-LGBT and pro-judaism? Why the hell would they do that?
Somewhat OT, I’ve written something that I think any lurkers here ought to read before posting, since this sort of thing always comes up whenever Ann Coulter gets mentioned:
Why you shouldn’t go with the standard transphobic insults.
So the argument is that:
These people are very intelligent and academic, but are obsessed by pseudo-scientific drivel.
They are also dumb teenagers, and act like bigots for the lulz, except also they read a lot and stuff about why being bigoted is really scientific and important.
They are at once sharp and educated enough to see that racism and sexism don’t exist, but too stupid and ill-educated to realize that anti-Semitism does exist.
So they act like fucking anti-Semites, and then when Jews are unintelligent enough to take this as anti-Semitism, the Jews are attacked, and ‘ritually humiliated’, but this really has nothing to do with anti-Semitism.
I think that’s what he said.
I don’t know if it’s been said before, but every time I see “cuck” I think …
Arrested Development Chicken Noises
@Pod
I’m getting alot of “ironic racism” in that paragraph. Ur intelligence, simultaneously “too smart” for society but too dumb for the nazi wannabes.
Movement might be a bit of a stretch, stewing a brew of misogynist, racist, bigoted, homophobic, nativist, neofeudalistic tendencies more like it. Though I do have to agree, this level of general misanthropy is a new level to the point of spilling over into everyday society.
Accomplished what exactly? You didn’t get your transphobic bathroom bills through, your Puppies’ groups got kicked around repeatedly and lost to an african american woman, GG is largely ignored by most gamers and gaming industry as a whole, 8chan is largely dead, Milo is publicly banned off Twitter, Roosh is now publicly known as a basement dwelling serial rapist by the public, Trump’s numbers are practically in the negative, Gay marriage is a constitutional right, Oregon standoff pathetically floundered like the paper tiger it deserves, lost to Sweden reddit in the troll wars, couldn’t find a super secret plot to Scalia’s death and oh, don’t forget that despite your best efforts, Zoe Quinn, Anita Sarkeesian and Brianna Wu are still in the gaming industry doing their things and going strong.
Not to mention the unironic cultural marxism, ironically Storm Front the unabashed nazis of Daily Stormer are actively rippinng into your scam gay Uncle Tom Milo. Then again for these people they need vague definitions because defining something is the death of their ideology.
They make their own jokes for themselves. But really “meme war”? As others have said if you consider your own political movement as “memes” then you already lost in the credibility, effort, and understanding of what you are even doing departments.
Now this is just desperate, how can they not understand that their lack of numbers is a disadvantage if you willingly split your party before election day? That’s like presidential campaigning 101. Not to mention that the GOP is simply incapable of surviving and their perceived invincibility by anyone is simply buying into their propaganda. Hell I would welcome the GOP dissolving and have Bernie and Hillary Supporters become the new wings of the House and Senate, it would certainly push the overton window back to levels that other nations currently enjoy.
Though as they say “the enemy of my enemy are the ones I enjoy seeing fight.” I can’t say I feel bad for Milo, he knew what he was getting into.
Gotta love how Milo is trying to create a distinction between “alt-right” and “white supremacy” with himself as, well, a shield.
I still stand by Laurie Penny’s interpretation that he’s a cynical asshole as opposed to the true believer assholes on the alt-right. They may eventually realize that, or not.
@weatherwax
March 14, why not throw a party?! 🙂
It’s a great excuse for cake, or maybe a few bagels.
I recently read Milo’s piece on the alt-right…the one where he says it’s not racist but, hey, the blacks and Latinos have their own movements so… And the three strands he identifies (apart from the ‘proper’ Nazis, who he kinda disavows) are ‘intellectuals’ (including esoteric fascists, the ‘dark enlightenment’ and the HBD crowd), ‘natural conservatives’ (who he describes as wanting to maintain the values of white European civilisation) and the 4chan hate ‘n’ harassment posse…
So, it is racist then. Thanks Milo.
@Honest John
The true believer alt-right assholes already know Milo is a gay Jew. They don’t care whether he is sincere or not, he’s still part of the enemy.
Only the 4-chan crowd who care more about bullying than white supremacy look at Milo as a leader. Most of them are poseurs too. The hateful sadism gets them off. Everything else is incidental.
@Shalimar
I don’t usually read websites of hatred, so these differences are interesting.
On the other hand, they seem like differences without a distinction.
How long, for example, can you be a hateful sadist who poses as a neo-Nazi before you become an actual neo-Nazi? I know that question can’t be answered.
Another commenter pointed out recently (sorry, commenter, I can’t remember who you are) that Andrea Hardie, not so long ago, was antiracist. Now she openly flirts with neo-Nazism.
@Kat:
I’ve heard that the answer is six months for most people. Humans tend to normalise their viewpoints to match their own behaviour and the company they’re in, to the point where if you pretend to be something for half a year, you’ll often end up internalising it.
Human cognition isn’t my field and I don’t have any papers to quote on that one, though, so take that with a grain of salt.
@ weatherwax & Virgin mary
Everyone knows the true test of Britishness is not having a clue when St George’s Day is.
@ EJ
Just been talking about your point with a mate. He went undercover for a couple of years as part if Operation Julie; and then ‘went native’ (as it’s called in this field)
For him it was more a case of “Hang on, why are these the bad guys?” after he’d got to know them.
He’s just written a book about it, so I may as well plug it.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Undercover-Operation-Julie-Inside-Story/dp/1530781558
Another example, perhaps more relevant to the situation you describe, is that the character of Barry in ‘Four Lions’ is based on a real life BNP member who ‘infiltrated’ a jihadist group and ended up converting to Islam.
Considering that #altrightmeans “A bunch of cranks with nothing in common except hate and crankiness” I don’t think they can hold together as a movement. I mean how can a libertarian be a fan of Hitler for example, who was not only the worst person ever, but also the worst big government squandermaniac ever to piss away resources on grandiose, wasteful and ill-thought-out schemes. His bad decisions played a big part in hatening the defeat of the Nazis, I suspect
How can someone call himself Morgoth and think he’s the good guy? Morgoth was the original bad guy form Tolkien’s mythology of Middle Earth before Sauron. Heck, Sauron was an errand boy for Morgoth. Morgoth is a name that was given to this entity once he became the hideous, towering evil that he did. His original name was Melkor, but they changed his name to Morgoth so as not to name him very much akin to how in the Torah/Bible Lucifer had his name changed to Satan (or “ha-Shatan” in the Hebrew). Morgoth simply means “the black enemy.” So this dude is self-identifying as the prime evil from The Silmarillion and is running a racist hate group online.
That’s like if Cobra Commander from G.I. Joe was like “Go Cobra! We’re the bad guys! Let’s do all of the bad things!” No bad guy (at least not one that is ever interesting to read) actually thinks s/he is the bad guy. What a dope.
@LaterSpaceCowboy
You see it’s meant to be a self deprecating joke and not a warning sign of his character.
@ Richard
During WW2 the SOE came up with a plan to assassinate Hitler called Operation Foxley. They got quite far with the planning but the war cabinet cancelled the operation because it was better to leave Hitler in charge than risk someone competent replacing him.
IOW, the latest batch of childish men are thrilled beyond words (almost) when they receive the slightest morsel of attention from a woman they say they hate. Why is it that I’m not surprised?
@Mish
It means whatever he says it means. War is peace and all that.