Racism can be so confusing!
Consider the case of everyone’s favorite racist dickhead fantasy author, Theodore “Vox Day” Beale. Ever since he discovered, two years ago, that his DNA contained enough Native American blood “to qualify for membership in most Indian tribes,” Beale has been using these DNA results to do a sort of end-run around accusations of racism.
How can he be a racist, much less a white supremacist, if he’s technically a “Person of Color,” specifically “a real Indian, complete with tribe, reservation, casino, and language” (that he of course does not speak). It’s a “gotcha” he loves to pull out every time someone points to any of the incredibly racist things he’s said over the years.
Now this little rhetorical gambit of his is starting to backfire. Turns out Beale’s identification of himself as a “Native American” isn’t exactly endearing him to the hardcore white supremacists of the Alt Right.
And so Beale, who very much wants to be not only a member but a big name in the Alt-Right club, has decided to invent a whole new category of Alt Right for people like him. Or perhaps just him.
In a blog post today, Beale divides the Alt Right into three groups: The Alt-White, the Alt-Lite, and the Alt-West. The Alt-White consists of the unrepentantly white supremacist Daily Stormer crowd. The Alt-Lite is made up of Pepe-posting anime Nazis who, in his mind, don’t really count as serious Alt-Rightists at all.
And then there is the Alt-West, which consists, as far as I can tell, of no one but Beale himself.
Beale tries to explain the details of this particular sorting system, but his efforts really only serve to muddy things further.
Alt-White is for whites only. Alt-West is pan-racial and pan-national, which should not be confused with being multicultural or equalitarian or pro-diversity in the egalitarian sense.
Beale is the only “pan-racialist” I’ve ever run across who not only rails against white women dating black men, but who actually went so far as to mock a “coal burning” white woman who was recently murdered by her black boyfriend. Beale’s take? “Burn de coal, pay de toll.”
Alt-White is primarily concerned with white nationalism, and secondarily concerned with European nationalisms. … While the Alt-West supports white nationalism, that is not its sole concern, as it supports all nationalism, European or otherwise.
Distinction without a difference.
Alt-White is neutral to hostile on Christianity. Alt-West is strongly pro-Christian, as it believes Christianity to be one of the three pillars of Western Civilization aka the historical Christendom.
But don’t worry, aspiring Alt-Westerners! You don’t actually have to do more than pay a vague lip-service to the idea of Christianity!
Pro-Christian includes, but does not require, actually being a Christian.
And then comes what the Nazi types like to call the Jewish Question.
Alt-White is hostile to very hostile to all Jews everywhere. Alt-West is friendly to Israeli Jews while hostile to globalist Jews and anti-nationalist Jews.
So Beale is fine with Jews just so long as they don’t live in his neighborhood. Or his country. Or indeed any country other than Israel.
But perhaps the most revealing bit is Beale’s take on literal Hitler and the literal Nazis.
Alt-White has a romantic view of National Socialism. Alt-West regards it as a suicidally stupid but semiotically useful form of German nationalism.
Er, what?
So Beale’s main criticism of the Nazis is that … they were kind of stupid for invading Russia and dooming themselves to defeat? But, hey, they had the coolest logo?
Aside from these little differences, Beale assures any Alt-Whities reading his post that
Alt-White and Alt-West are largely in accord. … [W]ith the possible exception of Christianity in the long term, there is very little reason for conflict between Alt-White and Alt-West … .
Also, white people are totally awesome!
There are much bigger battles ahead than settling the question of whether Christianity is a necessary component of Western Civilization or not. Because we know the white race is absolutely a necessary component of it, and that is why, whether one is inclined towards the Alt-White or the Alt-West, every member of the Alt-Right who values both whites and the West has immediate and mid-range objectives remain exactly the same.
Mighty white of you, Ted. Mighty white of you.
I agree with the point Simon made above. I, as a Jew, have no reason to trust that anybody is going to just leave us the hell alone and let us live our lives, not in Europe, not in the Middle East, not anywhere. The only place we have that we can actually be safe is Israel, and to deny us a place of our own after 1500 years of constant slaughter and persecution is simply unacceptable. We can talk about a Palestinian right of return when Hamas puts down their weapons and starts using that aid money to build a functioning state, rather than building tunnels and weapons to continue a pointless war with.