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For the last couple of weeks you’ll have been bombarded with news stories about an unfortunately large group of individuals that have been referred to as the alt-right.
In the scary new Trumpocalyptic era we find ourselves living in, racists and neo-Nazi nationalists have come crawling out of the holes they’ve been lurking in.
Oh, make no mistake.
They’ve always been there, but now that Trump is officially president, they’re out louder and prouder than ever.
Their rhetoric is characterised by bigotry, hatred and anything that isn’t white, straight and preferably male. (If female she’d better be demurely in her place.) And anyone who even thinks that they are simply a group wanting to protect and preserve their white ideals is not only ignoring the danger they represent, but are implicit in their blasé response to the narrative they represent.
Alternative right, or alt-right as it has been coined, is a term that is designed to make you think that as an ideology. The euphemistic name suggests their views are not as bad as you might think.
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The word alternative is one we associate with innocuous terms relating to its definition. Think different. Think edgy. Think unconventional, unusual or even unorthodox. Words that, on their own, have no connotation or connection with ideals that most sane people would outright reject and frown upon.
As one commenter in a Jezebel column notes, the term alt-right doesn’t frighten and repel people as the term neo-Nazi. Yet, this is what these people are.
And Richard Spencer, the leader of the white nationalist National Policy institute, and recent subject of a rather delightful video in which he is punched by a protester, has no qualms about using this term as a means to make his views more mainstream.
(Oh and speaking of which: If you’re using the violence begets violence argument as a means to defend Spencer, then you might want to take a hard, long look at yourself.
Millions of Jewish people were killed during the holocaust and this is a man who identifies as a Nazi, and promotes genocide as an answer to white America’s problems.
Spencer embraces the beliefs, anti-Semitism and core values of those who resorted to any means necessary to eradicate Jewish people. There is nothing that can justify defending him.
Oh, and another thing, for those of you who have been crying “ violence is not the answer,” did you protest when folk like Mike Brown, Tamir Rice and Eric Garner were killed by white police? Just asking.
Because if you can protest when a white racist is being attacked, then surely you can raise your voice for marginalised voices that aren’t safe from the very people you’re defending. I mean, what’s a fatal gunshot in comparison to a punch, right?)
Anyway, according to the Anti-Defamation League, Spencer established his platform in order to differentiate himself from the more traditional and mainstream conservatism, which is something I find so telling.
Mainstream conservatism in itself is often problematic, so moving away from that to establish and provide a platform that serves to normalise his and his followers’ racist rhetoric and ideal is even worse.
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And doing so under a guise of a label that presents itself as non-threatening is the worst and most insidious form of gaslighting there is. And the problem is that people, including the media, are falling for it.
And while it’s easy to resort to humour as a way to respond to the dangerous rhetoric (the #alternativefacts hashtag on Twitter that went viral following US press secretary, Sean Spicer’s inaccurate claim about Trump’s inauguration numbers, is proof of this), what comes across strongly here is that people like Spicer, Trump and Spencer are telling the world they can do and say whatever they want.
Yes, we desperately need coping mechanisms in the dawn of a Trump era, but if we’re going to survive, we need to drop the euphemistic headlines that imply that things aren’t as bad as they seem.
Because they are. And right now, calling a spade a spade is a revolutionary act we should employ every chance we get in the fight against the increasing tyranny of a bigoted Trump society.
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