Archive for the ‘Alt-right’ Category

Why Is the Alt-Right So Angry About Architecture? – CityLab

London's Shard rising behind the Millennium Bridge Peter Nicholls/Reuters

Conservatives have long opposed Modernism, but in the video age, avant-garde buildings can become potent symbols in the hands of groups like Infowars and the NRA.

Decrying what it sees as a war on white European culture, the alt-right movement calls out the people it believes stand opposed to freedom: feminists, antifascists, cucks, SJWs (social justice warriors), and President Trumps Twitter-foe Rosie ODonnell. Now you can add architects to the list.

On June 30, the far-right website Infowars posted a 15-minute-long video titled Why modern architecture SUCKS. This foray into design criticsim by Infowarsbetter known for pushing the ludicrous Pizzagate conspiracy and for host Alex Jones insistence that the Sandy Hook massacre was fakedcomes on the heels of another video that turns well-known works of architecture into symbols of liberal decadence. Im referring to the National Rifle Associations clenched fist ad, which critics have called chilling and an open call to violence.

The aesthetic judgment in the NRAs one-minute ad is implicit, almost subliminal, whereas InfoWars launches a full-bore attack. But both bear the same message about modern architecture: It is the province of the liberal urban elite, and that it stands for oppression.

The Infowars video is not the work of the red-faced, desk-pounding Jones but of a British alt-righter named Paul Joseph Watson. Its a mish-mash of critiques borrowed from highbrow architectural traditionalists with other opinions that seem idiosyncratic to Watson. He clearly researched his subject, albeit through the keyhole perspective of globalist cultural tyranny.

Watsons basic argument will be familiar to anyone who has sat through broadsides against Modernism before. High rises and concrete are dehumanizing. Modernism is the style of totalitarians, etc. As has been noted many times before, such claims are based on a misreading of architectural history; the early Modernists had democratic ideals and aspired to improve living and working conditions for all classes in society. For backup, Watson quotes and weaves in clips of critics Theodore Dalrymple and Roger Scruton, plus Prince Charles, who in the 1980s famously dismissed one Modernist design as a monstrous carbuncle. Morrisseythats right, the mopey former Smiths frontman/spouter of controversial opinionsalso makes a brief appearance in a vintage clip, lamenting the demise of his childhood neighborhood to the strains of How Soon Is Now?

This being Infowars, Watson turns the rhetoric up to 11. The founders of Modernism were the social justice warriors of their time, he says, aesthetic terrorists. Michael Graves Denver Public Library is an atrocity. Boston City Hall is a callous abomination. The Whitney Museum in New York is an abortion of a building.

Watson appears to have a particular dislike for the Whitneys architect, Renzo Piano. The Italian Pritzker Prize winner appears on screen not once but twice as Watson accuses architects of gratifying their outsized egos. That charge is frequently laid at the feet of famous architects, but the smiling, bespectacled Piano makes a curious target, given the understated minimalism of his buildings.

Piano also designed the Shard, the crystalline supertower in central London, and it is that building that most seems to arouse Watsons ire. He shifts without a beat from condemning Brutalist concrete tower blocks to lambasting todays glass skyscrapers; for him, they are all of a piece. The latter kind of architecture he calls Postmodernist, a term he uses throughout the video to denote any building he doesnt like from the 1980s or later. (In fact, Postmodernism was a defined style that sought, ironically, to revive historic motifs.)

Watson seems to have drunk deeply of the writing of James Howard Kunstler, the fiery retro-urbanist who wrote The Geography of Nowhere and whose TED talks Watson generously excerpts. Kunstler was an early influence on New Urbanism, and Watson touts many of the principles of that movement, extolling the virtues of neo-traditional architecture and of Poundbury, Prince Charles classicizing model town in southwest England. Watson also complains (correctly!) about restrictive zoning and makes a plug for mixed-use development, not seeming to realize that that is eminently compatible with large, contemporary-style buildings, and harder to find (and fund) in areas of low-rise houses, where he insists everyone wants to live.

The NRAs ad, on the other hand, uses a somewhat different visual tactic. The spot is narrated by NRA spokesperson and talk-show pundit Dana Loesch, who lays out a series of charges against an unnamed they:

They use their media to assassinate real news. They use their schools to teach children that their president is another Hitler. They use their movie stars and singers and comedy shows and award shows to repeat their narrative over and over again.

Over this, we see quick images of Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles (by Frank Gehry), the New York Times building (by Piano), and the large-scale sculpture Cloud Gate, better known as The Bean, in Chicagos Millennium Park (by artist Anish Kapoor).

We are never told who they are, but the shots make it clear: They are people in liberal L.A. and Chicago who swan about in fancy parks and buildings.

Perhaps the NRAs depiction of Disney Hall and Cloud Gate was just an handy b-roll choice, and perhaps Watsons animus against modern design is a personal quirk. But it seems more likely that elements of the far right are deliberately making architecture a front in the Trump-era culture wars. Why?

In one way, theres nothing new about this: Theres a long conservative tradition of eviscerating Modernism, which young fogeys can learn from and mine. In the past, the vehicle for such criticism was the magazine or newspaper column and the odd TV gig. But Internet video has opened up the field to amateur critics and made it possible to skip the textual description and short-cut straight to the offending building itself.

As a visual art form, architecture obviously lends itself to video. What easier, quicker way to connote urban elite than by pointing to a Frank Gehry building in the heart of a liberal metropolis? In a second or two, it can be framed as the symbolic opposite of an old-fashioned Main Street or historic churcha bizarre-looking redoubt where they partake of secular high culture, far from Real America (or Britains Brexit heartland).

That characterization is obviously simplistic and unfair, just as Infowarss blaming of Brutalism for the Grenfell fire in London is flat-out wrong. But that doesnt mean the idea wont stick. Over the past several years, conservatives have attacked Frank Gehrys design for the Eisenhower Memorial in Washington, D.C., as inhuman, vandalism, and a monument to Gehrys ego; these arguments won over some GOP members of Congress and have helped stall the memorials construction.

Contrary to Watson, the public doesnt hate Modernism: Witness how many 20th-century designs appear in this opinion-poll list of the countrys favorites. But the unfortunate truthand another possible reason for the far rights rediscovery of architectureis that progressive architecture is a convenient punching bag because it has a small constituency.

Architects number about 110,000 in the United States, or about 150,000 if you count junior architects working toward their licenses. Thats a fraction of, for example, the nations lawyers and doctors. The profession also skews urban and blue-state, with designers (and their bolder creations) concentrated in hubs like New York, Boston, L.A., and Chicago. This fits all too well with the narrative of an urban-rural divide.

American architects often lament how marginal their profession has become to national culture, compared to countries that invest substantially in public design. Well, architecture may suddenly be poised for new political relevance in the U.S.but not the kind its advocates would ever have imagined or hoped for.

Amanda Kolson Hurley is a freelance writer based in Washington, D.C.

CityLab is committed to telling the story of the worlds cities: how they work, the challenges they face, and the solutions they need.

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Why Is the Alt-Right So Angry About Architecture? - CityLab

Not Liking Modern Architecture Apparently Makes You Alt-Right – The Daily Caller

Favoring traditional art and critiquing modern architecture is apparently enough to make one a member of the alt-right, according to a Monday article.

Likening its critique of modernism and defense of traditional art to a defense of white European culture, Amanda Kolson Hurley conflates InfoWars and the National Rifle Association (NRA) with the alt-right in aneditorialentitled Why Is the Alt-Right So Angry About Architecture?

The aesthetic judgment in the NRAs one-minute ad is implicit, almost subliminal, whereas InfoWars launches a full-bore attack, states Hurley. But both bear the same message about modern architecture: It is the province of the liberal urban elite, and that it stands for oppression.

WATCH:

Hurley shifts to critiquing the NRAs ad, delivered by gun rights activist Dana Loesch. She suggests that elements of the far right are deliberately making architecture a front in the Trump-era culture wars.

WATCH:

We are never told who they are, says Hurley, referencing Loeschs repeated use of the pronoun, but the shots make it clear: They are people in liberal L.A. and Chicago who swan about in fancy parks and buildings.

Watson has publicly distanced himself from the alt-right while the NRA has never addressed its relationship to the label one way or the other.

Hurley closes her argument by suggesting that the public doesnt hate modernism, linking to apollindicating preference for 20th-century designs among the public. But she also acknowledges that the profession of architecture skews urban and blue-state, noting that designers heavily populate cities like New York, Los Angeles, and Boston.

The Daily Caller News Foundation reached out to Hurley and Justin Shubow of the National Civic Art Society for comment, but received none in time for publication.

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Not Liking Modern Architecture Apparently Makes You Alt-Right - The Daily Caller

Yes, There Is A Civil War Looming, And The Alt-Right Is Pushing It – HuffPost

Donald Trumps supporters are shaking like little schoolgirls afraid of the monster in the closet. Even while they point to the Middle East, they ignore the genuine threat of terrorism in America the alt-right.

More Americans have been killed by white, under-educated, financially impotent, scared white men, aka likely Trump supporters, in the past twelve months than by foreign terrorists screaming Allahu Akbar.

Now, Trump backers have a new dog whistle to follow which soothes their jangled nerves even as they go orgasmic for Trump, pick up their AR-15s and yell, hold my beer.

Is another Civil War brewing? Marshall Connolly writing for Catholic Online points out, There are few differences. The rhetoric is almost seditious. Politicians give speeches telling persons to be disruptors.

The word, revolution is being tossed about as a political term and its difficult to avoid the idea that the alt-right is being called to arms.

Terrorist Propaganda Courtesy of The NRA

A new ad from Americas largest gun lobby, the National Rifle Association, is being compared to a recruitment video produced by terrorists, experts claim.

Referring to persons on the left, the video claims They use their media to assassinate real news.

The video, featuring NRA spokesperson Dana Loesch, who is employed by the alt-right outlet The Blaze, claims the left is using former-President Obama to endorse the resistance.

The video urges viewers to link up with the gun lobby to fight back by raising clenched fists of truth.

Cynthia Storer, an adjunct instructor at Johns Hopkins, says, This is the kind of rhetoric which creates extremists.

Storer should know. She created the models used by the CIA in tracking the path of extremist radicalization.

Extremism sparks extremism in return. Its a cycle and the world burns, says Storer.

While Trump-supporters continue to point to refugees and persons from the Middle East as being a threat to America, the real terrorists are right-wing Americans. According to a recent report, nearly twice as many terrorist attacks were carried out by American extremists as Islamist extremists within America.

In a recent interview with Newsweek, Susan Benesch, a researcher with Harvards Berkman Klein Center, said, leaders used to condemn violence and the violent speech that incites hatred head on.

Benesch held up Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders as an example of what more politicians must do. Following the shooting of Republican Whip Steve Scalise by a Sanders supporter, Sanders said, Real change can only come about through nonviolent action. Anything else runs against our most deeply held American values.

Jerry Nelson spends much of his time poking Trumps meth-addled, uneducated fans with a pointy stick and is currently writing a book of muskrat recipes as well as a scrapbook of his favorite death threats. His lifes aspiration is to rule the world with an iron fist, or find that sock hes been looking for. Feel free to email him at jandrewnelson2@gmail.com if you have any questions or commentsor join the million (seriously) or so who follow him on Twitter @Journey_America.

Never far from his Marlboros and coffee, Jerry is always interested in discussing future writing opportunities.

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Yes, There Is A Civil War Looming, And The Alt-Right Is Pushing It - HuffPost

Trump’s CNN-Bashing Tweet Video From ‘Alt-Right’ Reddit Site – The National Memo (blog)

Reprinted with permission from MediaMatters.

President Donald Trump tweeted a video showing him tackling and punching a man with the CNN logo imposed over his face. The video appears to have come from forum frequented by alt-right Trump supporters who posted it days earlier.

On July 2, Trump tweeted video that appeared to show Trump in a wrestling match attacking a man with CNN on his face, writing along with the video, #FraudNewsCNN #FNN.

The Reddit forum r/The_Donald, wherealt-rightmembers supporting Trump congregate,posted a GIFfour days prior that seems to be the same footage.

Following Trumps tweet, users on the forumtook creditfor Trumps promotion of the footage, with one user telling the original uploader of the GIF that his dankery has been tweeted by the President of the United States.

Trumps tweet is the latest example of him promoting content that appears to have originated on online message boards such as Reddit and 4chan, which have regularlypushed conspiracy theoriesthat some in Trumps inner circle have sometimes promoted. During the presidential campaign, Trumps campaign teammonitoredforums like r/The_Donald for content, and in May, Trumpappeared to take messagingfrom r/The_Donald directed at Rosie ODonnell.New Yorkmagazines Olivia Nuzzinotedthis trend on CNNsReliable Sources, saying, I think this has happened a number of times where something it goes from Reddit to one of Donald Trumps aides, and then to Donald Trumps Twitter account.

(h/tBrian StelterandBradd Jaffy)

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Trump's CNN-Bashing Tweet Video From 'Alt-Right' Reddit Site - The National Memo (blog)

Navigating Trump’s Twitter: @realDonaldTrump and the alt-right meme factory – Mic

Navigating Trumps Twitter is a new series from Mic that explores how the president elects to use his favorite medium to impact policy, express his viewpoints and attack the media. Instead of covering Trumps tweets as they come, we look for patterns in behavior that offer a window into the presidents actual world view and how he chooses to express it through unmediated 140-character missives.

On Sunday, President Donald Trump tweeted a disturbing video of himself bodyslamming a man who had the CNN logo digitally pasted over his face.

The tweet, which rounded out a week of controversy over Trumps salacious Twitter usage, was widely criticized both by Democrats and Republicans for going too far. CNN issued a response saying Trump was engaging in juvenile behavior far below the dignity of his office.

But perhaps the most disturbing element of the entire controversy was the fact that the meme appears to have been created by a racist Reddit user who posts under the handle HanAssholeSolo.

Many were shocked that the president whose deputy press secretary claimed just days earlier that Trump had never promoted or encouraged violence would capriciously spread alt-right propaganda insinuating physical violence against the media is OK.

But this isnt the first time or even the second time that Trump has tweeted out memes originating from the darkest corners of the internet in order to promote his agenda, and it likely wont be the last.

During his presidential campaign, Trump famously tweeted an anti-Semitic meme of his opponent Hillary Clinton, which featured a Star of David over a pile of money labeling Clinton the most corrupt candidate ever. The image appeared to be an attempt to draw a connection between Clinton and anti-Semitic tropes about Jewish people and money, or possibly global banking conspiracies.

Less than a year before that, Trump manually retweeted an image that purported to show statistics about the percentage of black people killed by other black people in the U.S. The image, which has since been deleted by the original user, was based on made-up statistics from the Crime Statistics Bureau San Francisco, an agency that does not exist.

Sure enough, the origins of the image appear to trace back to white supremacist Twitter.

The crime statistics tweet was one of many manual retweets in which the president copied and pasted problematic content from his supporters into his own Twitter feed. The method is a holdover from a time before Twitter created a retweet function and users would have to copy others content to post it on their feed.

Trump continued to manually retweet things well after Twitter developed the retweet function, which frequently led to incidents during the campaign in which Trump retweeted his own racist followers with Twitter handles like @WhiteGenocideTM.

Trumps ability to credulously retweet his followers without any due diligence even led now-defunct Gawker to create a fake Benito Mussolini Twitterbot, which tweeted quotes from the fascist leader at Trump with the hope that he might retweet one of them which he eventually did.

The retweeted white supremacist content can be easily explained by the presidents famous lack of attention to detail. The same cannot be said of content like the CNN tweet or the Star of David tweet, both of which required the president to download or copy the source material into an original tweet.

The image of Hillary Clinton Trump tweeted had been edited from the original meme to obscure its attribution to a white supremacist website at the bottom.

The original version of the Hillary Clinton Star of David meme side-by-side with the one tweeted by Trump. The attribution is obscured in the latter by the addition of a Fox News Poll graphic.

In both the Star of David tweet and the CNN video tweet, questions remain about how the content made its way from the internets racist message board fever-swamps to the presidents Twitter feed.

Further, in at least one other case, Trump has had problems with Nazi imagery appearing in tweets that his campaign claims to have made themselves.

In a tweet sent out near the beginning of his campaign Trump tweeted a photo of himself, an American flag, $100 bills and soldiers. The only problem is that the soldiers, which were taken from a stock image, were wearing Nazi uniforms.

At the time, the Trump campaign blamed a nameless intern who they claimed had apologized and removed the link. But given what we have since learned about the resources of the early Trump campaign, its not outside the realm of possibility to imagine that Trump actually sourced the image from the internet.

One possible window into how alt-right memes end up in front of the president comes from his son, Donald Trump Jr. Following the 2016 campaign moment that saw Hillary Clinton claiming half of Trumps supporters are in a basket of deplorables, Trumps eldest son posted a meme on his Instagram account that featured him and his father alongside other prominent republicans as well as alt-right cartoon symbol Pepe the Frog and alt-right provocateurs Alex Jones and Milo Yiannopolous.

In the caption, Trump Jr. claims that a friend sent him the image. That same day, a similar version of the same meme, based on the movie campaign for The Expendables, had been tweeted by former Ku Klux Klan grand wizard David Duke.

Its possible that Trump and his family come by these memes through their connections with people who spend time in and around alt-right circles. Conspiracy theorist and alt-right personality Alex Jones has boasted that he has spoken to the president multiple times since he took office, and others like the eccentric Roger Stone, who frequently appears on Jones show, are also thought to have the the presidents ear.

Despite the presidents avid Twitter use, he is not a person who frequently seeks out information and culture online. His infamous Twitter account only follows 45 other accounts, most of which belonging to members of his campaign and Fox News hosts. And he has frequently demonstrated his preference for cable news over other forms of news media consumption.

But if someone close to Trump is sharing this content with him, then the question is who? And how much influence do they have over a president who plays fast and loose with his messages to the public?

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Navigating Trump's Twitter: @realDonaldTrump and the alt-right meme factory - Mic