ALT-right, but not ALT-Right Click… or CTL-ALT… or what?

It would seem that I’ve fallen woefully behind on currency with Slander Terms Of Art as applied by The Loony Side Of Left.

I’d kept up on “racist” and “homophobe” and even managed to figure out what “misogynist” was (but it isn’t the same as miscegenation even though it sounds similar…), but I’d not been able to keep up with the onslaught, it seems.

So Madam Hillary seems to have used a new one. ALT-Right. Near as I can tell, it’s a basket term that basically is used to tie all prior “Democratically Defined As Evil” epithets to the Right, and thus to Trump.

Now I’m most likely going to vote for Trump. Not with great enthusiasm, but as a much better alternative to Madam Hillary (the thief, liar, and perjurer who likes graft). That, by extension, given what the news has said, labels me as being “Alt-Right” and therefore hideously evil.

Well, nice to know that. Now I can just give up on ever being PC enough to be accepted in Polite-Left circles and return to eating roasted babies and murdering puppies and kittens, but without the guilt that I might be found out… (For those who are from The Left, and therefor sarcasm and humor impaired, that’s sarcasm… ask a friend that goes to church or doesn’t do drugs to explain it to you… if you have any…)

Sidebar on Me: Should those on the left want to color me rabid right wing, please read this first:
https://chiefio.wordpress.com/2012/11/16/wings-feet-beak-middle-of-the-bird/ If wishing to call me a Fascist, please read: https://chiefio.wordpress.com/2011/01/20/nationalist-socialists/ and realize I’m not that socialist… and finally, realize that the whole “right wing” and “left wing” thing is just garbage. https://chiefio.wordpress.com/2012/03/05/isms-ocracies-and-ologie/ and I’m not on that monolithic axis. I’m for individual liberty and responsibility, not Central Authority from Socialists nor Central Authority from Autocrats, Emperors (or Empress wanna-bees), Kings, Princes, Popes, Dictators or even Presidents. I’m not on your idea of a right-left axis, nor are most people. That is a choice between dictatorship of the Peoples Commissar or dictatorship of El Presidente. I reject both.

Besides, I am a Liberal, of the Classy sort.

So Hillary used it. I saw the clip on, I think, Fox news. (Oh Horrors! I must be the most Altered Of Alt-Right Wing Nuts!!! I watched Fox!!… again, those on the Left: this is more of that sarcasm stuff… I’m going to trust you to remember that all the way to the end of this piece… I know it’s hard, but do try.) So I saw Hillary say it on Fox and had no clue what an Alt-Right was, thinking it sounded like a chord I’d play on the keyboard to reboot or something… Over to CNN, then MSNBC to see if they elaborated.

Both dutifully and with great vigor used the term, right on queue. Seems they’d been emailed the same talking points in time for script writing. But still, no definition of what it was… though clearly it was very very evil and only dead souls of ax murderers, or anyone a Republican, was one. Oh, and anyone related to Breitbart News. See, Trump had hired a guy who had worked at Breitbart, so somehow that makes all of them Alt-Right and thus the evil first cousin of the Devil Himself… Which is good news for me, since I’ve worked at Apple Computer in the past, and they are quintessentially cool, so by their reasoning I’m essentially quintessentially cool forever!!! Oh Boy! (The spouse will be thrilled…)

Then, on the Rachel Maddow? show on pMSNBC they were kind enough to devote what seemed like hours to the topic of how to do character assassination by innuendo, labeling, smear, and application of neologisms that you’ve defined to turn good things into clearly evil things. Complete with a guest who makes a living out of identifying who is to be labeled, smeared, shunned, and have character assassination applied (until and unless Herr Clinton can apply the real thing…) That pointed me firmly at the definition being something of a ‘roll up’ of sexism, misogyny (that is somehow different from sexism), and racism and a few other isms. I also learned there was something called “white nationalism” that was also evil.

Being accidentally born white, I thought maybe I ought to find out what it was, and where this all white nation was located, as last I looked there were none such left on the planet…

So I started with the wiki on “Alt-Right”.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alt-right

The alt-right is a segment of right-wing ideologies presented as an alternative to mainstream conservatism in the politics of the United States. The alt-right has been described as a movement unified by support for Republican Presidential candidate Donald Trump, as well as opposition to multiculturalism and immigration.

OK, right off the bat, we’ve got issues. First off, “right-wing” is already a broken concept. (See above link on isms). Then it is tied to the United States. Any useful concept is generic and NOT tied to a single nation unless directly derived from that nation (like Finish is a language derived from Finland.) Next they nail it to Trump. OK, a custom cut slur just for him. Got it. No content, just insult.

Then it gets glued onto opposition to “multiculturalism and immigration”. Well gee… IF I happen to think the country is being broken by a massive influx of folks who have no reasonable cultural connection to it, nor any interest in the success of it, nor the job skills to be a success in it, that is evil? OK… So I guess that makes Japan and China “Alt-Right” as they both are interested in cultural preservation and only letting in immigrants who can improve their country… And here I thought The Peoples Republic Of China was “left wing”… (starting to see the problem with those ‘wings’?) This would also mean that the USA, all of Europe, and pretty much everywhere else in the world was “Alt-Right” up until about 1980…

As per opposition to multiculturalism: I love Chinese food and restaurants, my date to the high school reunion was a Chinese girl from my class, and I’m just about as much fond of Japanese food and culture (though the language is a bit hard due to the writing system). I grew up taking about 1/2 my meals as my Mexican best friends home (and him about 1/2 at mine). Yet I’m in favor of having One American Culture as our base, to which the rest are personal overlays. I’m opposed to the idea that just any old group can move in here, set up shop separate from America and do well. So what does that make me? “Alt-Right”? Pro cultural diversity? Pragmatist who realizes that some things just don’t mix? (Like Sharia and Liberal Democracy – one is authoritarian and absolutist, the other is not and demands acceptance of others. That’s just a logic problem result, not a statement of personal preference, BTW. Liberal Democracies are not stable over time and that bothers me… I prefer a Representative Libertarian form.)

Bold bits mine:

Although the alt-right lacks an official ideology, various sources have described it as a loosely-defined conservative movement composed of elements of white nationalism, white supremacism and antisemitism. The alt-right has also been linked to right-wing populism, nativism and the neoreactionary movement.

The alt-right has been said to be a largely online movement with internet memes widely used to advance or express its beliefs, often on websites such as 4chan.

Man that’s a lot-o-isms! Lets start with the easy one “antisemitism”. OK, so they are saying Trump hates Jews… like his daughter, son-in-law, and their children? OK…. so how’s that work again?

Sidebar on Me: Please note, I’m terribly biased here. I have Jewish relatives (Uncle, Cousins) and a kid somewhere in Israel. I’ve dated a Jewish girl and liked it. I’ve been to the weddings of Jewish friends, and I’ve worked for a Jewish owned and managed company. I prefer Kosher meat (though Halal is OK in a pinch) and really like a good Jewish Deli (but who doesn’t?)

Now we get into the harder ones. “White Nationalism”? Where’s that mysterious white nation? The original has further Wiki links where we find it means:

White nationalism is an ideology that advocates a racial definition of national identity. These individuals identify and are attached to the perceived white nation. It ranges from a preference for one’s ethnic group, to feelings of superiority, including calls for national citizenship to be reserved for white people, as in Rhodesia.

White separatism and white supremacy are subgroups within white nationalism. White separatists seek a separate white state, while white supremacists add ideas from social Darwinism and Nazism to their ideology. Both generally avoid the term supremacy because it has negative connotations.

Critics have argued that ideas such as white pride and white nationalism exist to provide a sanitized public face for white supremacy, and that most white nationalist groups promote white separatism and racial violence.

OK, I get it, it means “Bash Whitey”… So a white who believes in “white pride” is a racist bigot while a black who believes in “black pride” isn’t. Got it…

So the slam here is to assert Trump and by extension anyone who votes for him, is wanting to reserve citizenship for whites and create an all white country… Not seeing how that fits Trump and his followers. Nor me. (The Sisters kids are various ‘mixes’ including some American Indian and Hispanic and my grandkid is a Hispanic mix with maybe a touch of Africa, but nobody knows for sure, or cares.)

Somehow I’m not seeing how this fits…

Then again, I’m not seeing how misogyny fits a guy like Trump (since it means hatred of women) when he clearly adores his wife, and put his daughter in charge of significant businesses, hired a woman campaign manager, and promoted many women inside his companies. Then again, facts never stood in the way of a good Democratic Smear Campaign…

Returning to the ALT-right discussion:

We have “right-wing populism”. What the heck is that? Appealing to conservative populace? It is bad for a conservative politician to appeal to conservative people? Huh? So we’ll hit that wiki-link to see what the biased “left wing” guardians of all things wiki thinks it means:

Right-wing populism is a political ideology that rejects existing political consensus and often combines laissez-faire liberalism and anti-elitism. It is considered populism because of its appeal to the “common man” as opposed to the elites.

OK, so belief in capitalism / liberalism(classical, not American-Social see above “I am a liberal” link) and The People instead of their Elite Overlords is somehow bad? And equally somehow “right wing”? I thought the Right Wing was supposed to be the Fat Cat Rich Elite? And “the peoples movement” left? (Again that wing-ding fails us…)

In Europe right-wing populism is also an expression used to describe groups and political parties generally known for their opposition to immigration, mostly from the Islamic world, and the European Union. Traditional right-wing views such as opposition to an increasing support for the welfare state and a “more lavish, but also more restrictive, domestic social spending” scheme is also described under right-wing populism and is sometimes called “welfare chauvinism”.

From the 1990s right-wing populist parties became established in the legislatures of various democracies including Canada, Norway, France, Israel, Poland, Russia, Romania and Chile, and entered coalition governments in Switzerland, Austria, the Netherlands, New Zealand, and Italy. Although extreme right-wing movements in the US have been studied separately, where they are normally called “radical right”, some writers consider them to be the same phenomenon. Right-wing populism is distinct from the historic right, which had been concerned with preserving the “status quo”, and mostly do not have roots in their political parties.

Ok, so “I like my country, language, and culture, and would like them to continue” is evil, eh? Well, guess we all ought to just march right out and commit cultural and ethnic suicide then…

I do have to ask, though: What makes the invading culture (from anywhere) superior? If they are not interested in becoming Germans or French, why invade Germany and France? And, pray tell, why ought the citizens of a country working hard for a living provide “welfare benefits” to random immigrants who have no interest in that country?

But at least we’ve now generalized to folks outside the USA. Though it does still seem to be a “Get Whitey!” theme… as it is pejorative to historically white Europeans and doesn’t seem to care that China and Japan and even Saudi Arabia are not very willing to let a large foreign national influx happen, and tend to think you ought to learn THEIR language if you would be a citizen…

I’m going to skip over ‘neo-reactionary’ as I’m pretty sure it’s the usual International Communism / Socialism definition of reactionary.

That leaves “Nativism”. That’s another new one for me.

Nativism is the political position of supporting a favored status for certain established inhabitants of a nation as compared to claims of newcomers or immigrants. According to Fetzer, (2000) opposition to immigration is common in many countries because of issues of national, cultural, and religious identity. The phenomenon has been studied especially in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the United States, as well as Europe in recent years, where immigration is seen as lowering the wages of the less well paid natives. Thus nativism has become a general term for ‘opposition to immigration’ based on fears that the immigrants will distort or spoil existing cultural values. In situations where immigrants greatly outnumber the original inhabitants, nativistic movements can allow cultural survival.

In scholarly studies nativism is a standard technical term. The term is typically not accepted by those who hold this political view, however. Dindar (2010) wrote “nativists…do not consider themselves as nativists. For them it is a negative term and they rather consider themselves as ‘Patriots.'” Anti-immigration is a more neutral term for opponents of immigration.

So the idea that a country ought to take care of the stock of Citizens first, before letting a few million other folks flood in and get on the dole or suck up the available jobs at lower wages, that’s somehow bad?

Isn’t the PURPOSE of a country to protect and provide for the citizens of that country?

I note in passing that the list of “studied” (i.e. offending) nations reads like a list of British derived capitalist built successful nations. How about asking the Chinese, Japanese, Russians, Saudis, Iranians, heck, even the Egyptians and Indonesians how they feel about having a few millions of White Christians moving in, expecting welfare payments, refusing to learn the language, and generally rejecting the local culture….

Nations exist to serve the people of that nation, not the entire world.

But moving on…

Beliefs

Although the alt-right lacks an official ideology, various sources have described it as a loosely-defined conservative movement composed of elements of white nationalism, white supremacism and antisemitism. The alt-right has also been linked to right-wing populism, nativism and the neoreactionary movement.

OK, so mysterious “various sources” decided to “link” or label it as those things. Hardly very informative. Or reliable.

Then it gets personal with Trump again:

Discussing the origins of Donald Trump’s support, Jeet Heer of The New Republic identified the alt-right as having ideological origins among paleoconservatives, particularly with respect to restricting immigration and supporting a more openly nationalistic foreign policy. Newsday columnist Cathy Young also noted the alt-right’s strong opposition to both legal and illegal immigration and its hard-line stance on the European migrant crisis. Robert Tracinski of The Federalist stated that the alt-right opposes miscegenation and advocates “hard-core” collectivism as well as tribalism.

Commonalities shared across the otherwise loosely defined alt-right also include a disdain for mainstream politics and strong support for Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign.

Well, we’ve got another load of ‘isms’ larded on. Though I must point out that “‘hard core’ collectivism” is not usually associated with ‘right wing’, being a communist ideal…

OK, so Paleoconservative sounds a bit like Troglodyte or Neanderthal (and given my Neanderthal genes, I’d have to assume it’s a good thing ;-)

Paleoconservatism (sometimes shortened to paleocon) is a conservative political philosophy found primarily in the United States stressing tradition, limited government and civil society, along with religious, regional, national and Western identity.

Paleoconservatives in the 21st century often highlight their points of disagreement with neoconservatives, especially regarding issues such as military interventionism, illegal immigration and high rates of legal immigration, as well as multiculturalism, affirmative action, trade blocs, trade unions, and foreign aid. They also criticize social welfare and social democracy, which some refer to as the “therapeutic managerial state”, the “welfare-warfare state” or “polite totalitarianism”. They identify themselves as the legitimate heirs to the American conservative tradition.

Well, looks like I could be comfortable as a “paleoconservative” (but not a ‘paleocon’ that sounds like an old convict ;-)

But I wonder if they are OK with folks smoking MJ, having sex with anyone as long as by mutual concent, and would be OK with the idea that Marriage ought to be between 2 (or more) people and not involve the government in any form? Maybe I’m not a paleoconservative…
Where’s the “Get the government The Hell Out Of Our Lives!!!!”-ism?

In Conclusion

Well, it looks to me like The Loony Side Of Left just got tired of saying:
Sexist, racist, misogynist, nativist, right-wing populist, antisemite, white nationalist, white supremacist, tribalist, monoculturalist, homophobic, neo-reactionary, baby eating woman killer;
and needed a shorthand for it… so chose “ALT-right”.

Well, at least it is efficient…

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