the alt-right

https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/irony-
new-white-supremacy/

Twitter and Facebook have unquestionably failed the left. The conviction that these companies are supposed to operate in the service of some ultimate humanitarian good reminds me now of the way certain techies fetishize Elon Musk’s plan to save humanity by moving to Mars. There, rather than succumbing to the planet’s toxic atmosphere and lack of natural resources, humans will somehow build a lasting, utopian society where we don’t repeat any of the same mistakes we’ve made here. It also calls to mind the reverence of futurist Ray Kurzweil, and his theory of an eventual human merger with machines that may make us all knowing and immortal. This future, which he calls the Singularity, is (much like the Rapture) always approaching but never quite here.

I wonder if rather than looking to technology to fix us at some point in the future, it might not make sense to look at where it has brought us. I also wonder whether it might not be the work unlikely to make any kind of splash online — odd non-denominational chapels featuring priceless works of art, huge, un-Instagrammable protest murals, new classical music performances, and other work viewers have to engage with sincerely and in real life to experience — that we need most right now.

In that same vein, what might it mean to gaze clear-eyed at the far-right agenda, admit that we are both frightened by it and ashamed of the role liberal complacency played in its rise, and start by building our weapons from there? Rather than denying what can’t be denied and minimizing what can’t be minimized, thus forfeiting the fight altogether? I’m not suggesting the left abandon cynicism, only that we stop affording it a weight it can’t carry under the current administration. Leaving kneejerk irony and the rewards it offers behind might be difficult at first. But it might also be worth it, if it means we get to take back the actual world, and build in it something new.

trying to fix that link: https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/irony-%e2%80%a8new-white-supremacy/

Aw:

If a group’s only MO is destruction, it stands to reason that eventually it will destroy itself. What The New York Times calls the “alt-right” isn’t a monolith, but a swarm of tribes with different agendas, some of which radically oppose one another. Ultimately, it’s not difficult to imagine them all simply tearing each other apart as the entire movement implodes. Until that point, I wonder if we shouldn’t broaden our perspective. We should not only work on undermining the white supremacist agenda, but also the cultural environment that helped it thrive and grow in the first place. Irony was an integral part of that cultural environment. I wonder then if sincerity is the last radical act left. Perhaps it is time to say what we mean.

I like that essay. It's a bit rambling, and a bit self-serving in it's idea that Rothko Chapel and New Music will save us all, but it's nice.

finally somebody calls for the end of irony

The new new new new new new new new new new new new new new new new new new new sincerity

the alt-right: alanis to blame?

It doesn't surprise me but also news to me is that the folk music community has become particularly poisoned. Anyone witnessed this?

What folk music community? And where?

Rod, Jane and Freddy seem quite sinister now when I think about it.

Rod, Jane and Friedrich morelike.

stunned to hear that the famously diverse and forward-looking folk music scene has been infiltrated by the alt-right

there will be Morris Dancers dancing on yr grave for such a vile slur!

Neofolk obvs has hard-right adherents but idk if that crosses over to mainstream folk music much.

Tends to be full of lefties in my experience.

I don't know much about this folk thing, I should ask the person who was talking about it. Yes, this has always been going around the neo-folk scene but I imagine there's always been some of it in any genre that shows the past so lovingly or in various gothic genres (I love all this stuff. Unfortunately a lot of things I like have this fringe to them but maybe there's an extremist/toxic fringe to most things?). I was loving some neo-classical darkwave recently and realized that a lot of racists would probably love it too, hoping the band themselves aren't like that.

I was reading a book compilation of the Esoterra fanzine a few years ago, there was interviews with a lot of neo-folk, black metal, dark ambient, industrial etc, and the interviewer was regularly asking "are.....you racist?" in different words and the answers weren't always very reassuring.

A lot of people on the alt-right spectrum utterly loathe irony and are totally into sincerity.

It certainly doesn't fit with my experience of the trad folk scene.

Though that was before Shirley Collins et al started getting written about by the David Keenan/Wire cru.

There's nothing the alt-right loves more than a stridently sincere lefty they can troll, really.

Aside from that, irony is less a conscious stance and more sort've the historical dead-end that we've arrived at. A way out of it needs to be found but it can't be as simple as a "return to sincerity", that just ends up as cosplay imo.

Tom, I'm guessing the "Folk" talk in here is probably more amongst the lines of Black Metal and/or semi-Indie types picking the genre up rather than anything traditional. There's a lot of obsession with Celtic roots amongst US white nationalists iirc, might tie into it.

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/trump-white-nationalist-troll-ricky-vaughn_us_5ac53167e4b09ef3b2432627?gr

Opening line of this review, which continues in entertaining fashion:

This is just the fucking worst.

https://johannesburgreviewofbooks.com/2018/04/04/richard-poplak-sets-jordan-b-petersons-house-in-order-a-scorching-review-of-12-rules-for-life/

man dunking on peterson really never gets old huh

a proper and necessary dunking IMO

I've been trying to avoid stuff about JP but I think that article told me everything I need to know, enjoyed reading that.

That's a well-written and highly entertaining take-down (definitely my favourite so far) but, as usual, it preaches to the choir. A friend of mine has been slowly sinking into JP-style archetypal clichés (regarding men and women in particular) over the past few years and I'm frankly at a loss as to how to get him to question his beliefs, especially since he is, at base, a highly intelligent and critical individual whose thinking skills are now wholly in the service of confirmation bias. I thought of sending him that link but am afraid that it would merely validate his worldview.

I'm not sure how much it's worth to try and change someone actively rather than passively, leading by example and not via links.

i have a friend who has turned into a meme cartoonist who's probably a JP fan (or would immediately become one if he was made aware of his existence) and whose nouveau libertarianism certainly has started to quickly lean a bit right (especially w/r/t gun violence and the #metoo movement.) he's had some of his shit shared by alt-right types on social media. it's frustrating to see but i won't try to change his opinions, it's a pointless waste of energy afaict.

The only good Nazi is a dead Nazi Nazi who has blown himself up in his kitchen

https://www.mydaytondailynews.com/news/national/warrants-bomb-maker-killed-apartment-explosion-had-white-supremacist-bent/y6Y8rfDEIv5SC9zCbbkloL/

https://usa.spectator.co.uk/2018/04/the-fall-of-milo-yiannopoulos/

Brilliant that Spectator piece, a classic of the 'Give em enough rope' genre. That bit about going back to traditional media at the end.. oh man.

ugh. The part where he went on those radio shows - I had forgotten Anthony Cumia existed - was especially nauseating.

cumia is such a scumbag. and his podcast network hosts gavin mcinn3s’ garbage too. game recognize game i guess

This article reads like it was written by an intern - and surprise, it was!

lol

Anti-Abortion Leader Emerges As White Nationalist

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/kristen-hatten-white-nationalist_us_5acd0d5be4b0259339de14f8?xi

shocked, shocked etc.

FRIDAY: @BillMaher welcomes @MichaelAvenatti @JayInslee @alexwagner @FrankBruni + @jordanbpeterson to #RealTime @HBO! pic.twitter.com/oRCkeY9LOq

— Real Time (@RealTimers) April 18, 2018

Anti-Abortion Leader Emerges As White Nationalist

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/kristen-hatten-white-nationalist_us_5acd0d5be4b0259339de14f8?xi9

A Twitter account called 'Byzantium' rails against 'the multiracial hellholes of western Europe and deep state America'. Where to begin...

Hatten and her friends bleating "she's not a racist" "she's not a racist".

She's a racist.

fter I reached out to Hatten last week, she deleted her Facebook and Twitter accounts

this writer should reach out to more white supremacists.

She said she is having a high-risk pregnancy and that the negative attention to her views would cause her more stress

is this the set-up for the it was just a hormonal phase, excuse?

is she one of those sacred duty to birth more wite children

assholes

couple of young, highly smart engineering undergrads talking absolute alt-right shit irl & I just had to give up stoicism and counter it & it ended as you expect. ending political arguments by insulting (yr lack of) manhood or appearance is 100% cogent in their worldview.

none of this mattered, but right-wing ideology feels very intuitive, I guess (bro, all this inequality/hierarchy is just natural), while leftism is counter-intuitive—it complicates, questions, makes the world's problems more complex, takes many variables at once, assigns guilt and blame.

sometimes it seems like hating/mocking leftism and adopting the opposite of all leftist stances is their whole fuel, or how they persecute leftists for not being 100% saintly virtuous people. which, in a weird way, means they have internalized our framework in a warped way

idk. trying to understand our right-wing world.

sometimes it seems like hating/mocking leftism and adopting the opposite of all leftist stances is their whole fuel, or how they persecute leftists for not being 100% saintly virtuous people. which, in a weird way, means they have internalized our framework in a warped way

This is not confined to either the alt-right or even the right tbh.

I think it’s fairly standard where hypocrisy is one of the few things that both sides agree is bad.

rightism is not intuitive and leftism is not counter-intuitive. both are learned responses

i feel the big thing is that right-wing ideology is intrinsically hateful and, especially, vengeful, and these aspects of that ideology do resonate with me. most forms of leftism tend to point out that vengeance isn't really workable. that's true, but lord i surely do want to see my enemies suffer.

Right-wingers like to characterise left-wing ideologies as being hateful and vengeful as well though. Hating people who are better off because of their obvious superiority and wanting revenge by stripping those people of their hard-earned assets. Or even just "liberals hate our country".

sure but i'm not talking about how these ideologies describe themselves, i'm talking about how they operate in practice. they can talk about how "hitler was a liberal" all day long but they'll still be wrong.

Seems hard to deny that 20th century Communists could be p vengeful.

What's at the root of most conservative right-wing thinking (if you want to take it in good faith) is the idea that suffering, inequality, etc. are inevitable and that attempts to eliminate these will inevitably backfire and suffering, inequality, etc. will be heightened as a result. That isn't in and of itself hateful or vengeful, but the certainty that leftists will lead to a worse world is what makes right-wingers feel it's ok to hate us - the reverse also usually true, leading to what sund4r mentions.

alt-right a different kettle of fish because they're not really conservative in the "intuitive" way epigone describes - they want radical change as much as any part of the left does, except they harken back to a fictional Paradise Lost of well defined gender roles, racial hierarchies, etc.

https://www.splcenter.org/20180419/mcinnes-molyneux-and-4chan-investigating-pathways-alt-right

Respondents recount a transformation that takes place almost entirely online. Led either by their own curiosity or an algorithm, the content they consumed became increasingly extreme, fostering their radicalization and guiding them eventually to TRS. Their responses reveal a pipeline between the alt-lite and racist “alt-right,” with many users explaining that alt-lite figures like Gavin McInnes were the first to introduce them to hardcore, veteran white nationalists.

The two threads, titled “WHAT BROUGHT YOU INTO THE MOVEMENT?” and “Path here beginning from Gavin,” asked posters to reflect on their own “red pill” narratives and provide tips for converting others. “Here’s the challenge,” a user identified as The Somalisher wrote. “Create a list of succession from the Alt-Light to us. I have friends who like Gavin…But I can’t exactly throw Andrew Anglin at them.”