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The Associated Press is the best kind of a self-correcting news agency. But its not infallible. Because its a distributed news organization - more precisely, many news organizations that have come together in an association - it can police many of its own members errors.

And thats why its important to talk about the APs representation of the alt-right. The phrase has become very, very important lately, with the ascension of Steve Bannon (of Breitbart News) to White House adviser, and even closer to home, with the appearance last week of some fliers around town allegedly touting an alt- right groups ideology.

The AP has some guidelines that are misleading about the alt-right.

Whenever alt-right is used in a story, be sure to include a definition: an offshoot of conservatism mixing racism, white nationalism and populism, or, more simply, a white nationalist movement, the AP says.

But thats inaccurate.

As we are sure the AP would agree, words mean things. And conservatism has a clear meaning. Its an ideology with tenets that include limited government, personal freedom, free markets and the rule of law.

The alt-right holds to none of those things. The AP is more accurate when it goes into a more lengthy description of the movement.

The movement has been described as a mix of racism, white nationalism and populism, the AP reports.

How, then, is it an offshoot of conservatism? Its not. One of the best analyses of the alt-right movement comes from Robert Tracinski in The Federalist.

This alt-right agenda is not really part of the right because it is thoroughly collectivist in a vile and personal way, Tracinski explains. It says that your most personal, individual, deeply meaningful decisions - such as whom you marry and have children with - should be determined by some larger social program based on group identity. Thats why they are openly opposed to free markets in favor of economic nationalism: this is an anti-freedom, anti-individualist movement.

Nor is the alt-right movement a defense of Western civilization, as it sometimes claims.

The central theme of the Western intellectual tradition is about rising above tribalism to arrive at universal values, Tracinski writes. Thats a common theme that connects both secular and Christian traditions in the West. It was the whole distinctive idea behind the Ancient Greek revolution in thought. Philosophers like Socrates launched the Western tradition by asking probing questions that were meant to sort out which ideas and practices are based merely on historical accident and social convention, versus those that are based on universal laws of human nature.

The alt-right movement isnt alone in its errors, of course.

As Tracinski points out, Yes, of course the left does it, too. They have their own racist theories dressed up under the heading of identity politics. So what? Your mom told you the answer to this when you were 5: two wrongs dont make a right.

The Associated Press must be more careful. The alt-right movement is in no way an offshoot of conservatism. Just ask conservatives - who are its frequent targets.

See more here:
Editorial: 'Alt-right' movement isn't conservatism - Tyler Morning Telegraph