Archive for the ‘Alt-right’ Category

The Alt-Right Is Debating Whether Bannon Needs a Better Press Strategy – New York Magazine

Steve Bannon. Photo: Mark Wilson/Getty Images

Now that Steve Bannon has been temporarily or permanently sidelined by President Donald Trump, his nationalist allies people who formerly identified as alt-right, but now reject that label as it has become synonymous with white supremacy are debating what their man in the White House did wrong and what he might do to salvage the situation. One of the key questions up for debate is whether Bannon should have made better use of ideologically sympathetic media outlets when he ran Breitbart News, he described it as the platform for the alt-right to get out his side of the story.

He really doesnt talk to all of us outside who would be inclined to help him, said Charles Johnson, who asked to be identified as a Bannon ally and entrepreneur. The editor-in-chief of GotNews.com, the flame-haired media flame-thrower may be better known for getting kicked off of Twitter and for his lawsuit against the now-defunct Gawker.

The chief strategist to the president might have done better job of holding onto power, the thinking goes, if he were talking to those who want what he wants and have the benefit of seeing things the way they appear outside of the bubble of his war room, the name Bannons given his West Wing office.

He has a lot of friends out on the internet who love him, but we are all still waiting for him to unleash the beast, Johnson said. He added that Bannon had never been in touch with him and his cohorts, and that he should mobilize us but he is playing too nice.

A source close to the White House agreed with Johnson that Bannon needs to change if he wants to survive. Hes not achieving anything! Whats he achieving? Hes a zero. Hes incompetent! the source said. He doesnt get back to the people at the Daily Caller. He doesnt get back to the people at Infowars, the source said, I dont care what you think of their politics, they reach millions of people. Why would you not respond to them?

Paul Joseph Watson, Infowars editor-at-large, told me hed never been in touch with Bannon but disagreed that it was a problem, saying he should concentrate on running the country. Of course, the president himself has been in contact with Infowars founder, Alex Jones, appearing on his radio program via Skype during the campaign and speaking to him privately thereafter. (Jones, who is in the midst of a theatrical custody battle in court, didnt respond to a text message seeking comment.)

Now, as with all matters that require talking to the people both populating the current administration and propping it up, there is the risk that this particular argument is more diversionary than literal that accusing Bannon of ignoring controversial, far-right nationalists is in fact a means of protecting him.

If we were lying, how would you know, right? Mike Cernovich said, addressing that question directly.

A social-media agitator known for spreading conspiracy theories about Pizzagate and Hillary Clintons health during the election who now says hes new-right or American nationalist, Cernovich also claims that Bannon doesnt talk to anybody. He said proof of Bannons lack of communication with nationalists was Breitbarts coverage of the administration, which has been both sporadically critical and seemingly out of the loop. Thats why Breitbart missed the Susan Rice thing, he said, that kind of says it all. But Cernovich didnt miss the Susan Rice thing in fact, he broke the story that, during her stint as a national-security adviser to Barack Obama, Rice had requested from classified intelligence reports the names of officials associated with the Trump campaign implying that he, at least, has some highly placed sources. (Asked to disclose where he obtained the scoop, he didnt respond.)

Still, Cernovich doesnt accept the prescription of his ideological confrere Johnson he sees too much downside for Bannon in talking to alt-right journalists. Its gonna create drama, he said. Bannon should definitely not talk to anybody.

Keep in mind though that Cernovich claims he didnt even know who Bannon was until, like, nine months ago. He says he learned of him through Joshua Greens Bloomberg profile which came out in October of 2015, or 18 months ago. (Cernovich remembers his first impression: Wow, this guys a G.)

In some ways, the question of whether Bannon should be cultivating more allies in the press is part of a larger debate over his operating style in the White House which is to operate in isolation. Im not doing this to have friends, he told me. I dont socialize a lot, I dont bring people into my life. This is like being in the Navy, this is like a duty. I dont enjoy this every day. This is not living; this is a kind of existence.

Though he brought into the White House some of his own staff Julia Hahn from Breitbart; Andrew Surabian from the Tea Party Express and Alexandra Preate, his personal flack he has spent little political capital fighting for high-level strategists with whom he could align in ideological disputes.

He has also, according to a source close to the president, not weighed in on behalf of nationalist appointments or principles. The source added, I dont care what he says: He never objected to the bombing in Syria never. Tells people he did, but thats a fucking lie. My source is as high as you can go. Bannon did not respond to a text about Syria, and when I ran into him in the West Wing on Friday afternoon, he darted off before I could ask a question.

Salma Hayek Takes Us on the Tumultuous Journey of Her Husbands Maybe-Maybe-Not Affair

Michael Moore Predicts Trump Will Be Impeached In the Middle of His Second Term

Conservative Pundit Claims Hannity Invited Her Back to His Hotel Once, But Says It Wasnt Sexual Harassment

The 100th day is coming. Look busy!

Possibly a government shutdown crisis, the return of Trumpcare, and the unveiling of the presidents tax-reform plan or none of the above.

Debbie Schlussel says the incident was weird and creepy but that she wouldnt call it sexual harassment.

As a Navy strike group heads toward North Korea, Pyongyang promises to turn arrogant aircraft carriers into scrap metal if they get too close.

But her new Sunday show wont debut until June.

Jeff Sessions wont like this one.

Emmanuel Macron and Marine Le Pen are headed into a historic race.

In all the talk about Trump becoming normal or centrist, it is illuminating to realize how little would have changed if Ted Cruz had defeated him.

Still, theres no question that the voting public across the West is terribly alienated from their governments.

The centrist Macron and far-right Le Pen will go head-to-head on May 7.

There is little good news for President Trump in two new polls measuring Americans opinions about his first 100 days.

He has a lot of friends out on the internet who love him, but we are all still waiting for him to unleash the beast.

Gail Sheehy reports: Theyre saying its time to ditch the Goldwater Rule.

Sources say that seven black Fox News employees plan to join a racial-discrimination suit against the company.

Large crowds championing reality and evidence took to the streets in hundreds of cities on Saturday and nerds definitely make the best signs.

The president will celebrate his first 100 days in office by toasting himself and his many accomplishments.

But when the Obama administration later wanted to confirm Russias efforts, Comey kept his distance.

Behold this unorthodox aerial-transport plan.

The presidents son usually prefers to kill much bigger animals.

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The Alt-Right Is Debating Whether Bannon Needs a Better Press Strategy - New York Magazine

Spread your hate elsewhere: in defense of student protesters of alt-right speakers – The Stanford Daily

Over the past few weeks, there have been two major controversies regarding far-right speakers and their potential to speak at universities. Richard Spencer was supposed to speak at Auburn University, but the university decided to cancel the event. Subsequently, a federal judge overturned the decision to cancel the event, deciding that Spencer did indeed have the right to speak at the university, andprotests ensued. The following week, U.C. Berkeley cancelled an event with Ann Coulter due to safety concerns.

In these cases, and in cases like these, many opinions come out on the side of protecting free speech. The thing is, only one kind of free speech has champions of its protection. The far-right racists opinions and ability to express themselves take precedence over the opinions and concerns of the protesters.

Of course, this makes sense. Based on the precedents set in this nation, we protect all kinds of speech, unless that speech directly and immediately endangers the physical safety of the people that hear it. These precedents created this situation in which alt-right free speech is heavily protected. The problem with having a legal system based on precedent is that it is inherently conservative. It is resistant to change and preserves systemic abilities to maintain injustice.

At another level, though, the fact that these particular protections are happening at universities is deeply troubling. Arguments for hearing the arguments of the far-right often include a line or two about the importance of students learning about perspectives that arent their own. This would make sense if this perspective didnt represent majority opinions that are present in our daily interactions. Sure, most people arent actively advocating for the KKK or alt-righters, but racism in America is the norm. Hate toward people based on specific identity categories (race, class, gender, sexual orientation, ability, socioeconomic status, etc.) is our norm. We dont need to hear perspectives articulating that this exists because we know it. We see this hate coming from our peers, our superiors and our elected officials.

When students protest far-right speakers on their campuses, they arent trying to hide away from the hate of those speakers. They are (we are) trying to guide our own educations and get the most out of the time that we and the people around us are paying so much for. It is a waste of time, money and energy to entertain hate when we already so obviously know about its existence. It is also true that if there is any space in which it is appropriate for students to take charge of their own learning, it is a university context. While it is true that no one forces anyone to attend lectures, the statement of complicity says something significant about how the university feels about protecting its students as compared to the free speech of those not even party to the institution.

Folks seem to forget sometimes that, while we are still young, we are adults. Adults who can get married without our parents permission, vote, be conscripted in the case of a draft, make major medical decisions about our healthcare and, presumably, make decisions about the work that we want our education to do on us and for us. We are not young children whining about eating our vegetables, nor are we adolescents complaining about algebra.

In fact, having some of these speakers on campus can actually harm our educations. By creating a space that allows for the alt-right to speak freely without adequate critique, those hosting the speaker are also opening the space to real violence against people from historically marginalized backgrounds.

Furthermore, is not the purpose of attending university to get us to become better adults who can think critically? And shouldnt many people who critique whiny college students be pleased with this fact? In his indictment of students attending elite institutions, Bill Deresiewicz discusses the problem of students getting through an entire tertiary degree without developing critical reasoning skills. Students making decisions about the kinds of people and kinds of thought they want to support is a demonstration against that idea. We are not simply excellent sheep. We develop moral compasses and stick to ours, even when our administrations leave theirs at the door for the sake of growing endowments or being provocative.

The outcomes of these two cases are devastating for the future of building a better, less racist society. A federal judge said that is important for someone from the alt-right to spew his hatred and racism in institutions of learning. He didnt make a point about how its important to learn the logic of the alt-right in order to combat it. There was no move to push readers of his decision to think about how hearing opinions like that can help us refute them in the future.

The rationale given for canceling Coulters event is equally problematic. Canceling the speech for safety reasons is essentially a rejection of the concerns of the student voices speaking out against her presence. It says that if they werent worried about the safety of the speaker, it would be fine for her to defend the racist ideologies she espouses and those of the people she works with.

There is certainly an argument to be made that in order to get things in this nation clean, we must air all of our dirty laundry. And in some ways, this is true. We do need to be able to have open communication about these things. However, we need to talk about them with the understanding that we are getting them out in the open in order to get rid of such hateful thoughts for the rest of eternity. We cannot talk about these ideas or create space for them for the mere sake of doing so. We must create that space if, and only if, the goal is to build a better future by correcting the logic and subsequent behaviors of the people who are hateful towards anyone because of an identity that is a part of who they are.

Sure, the logical progression of arguments from the far right may work. However, a progression of logic that starts from faulty assumptions cannot possibly end with correct conclusions. Those arguments start from faulty premises and completely ignore the fact that historical inequalities have created a system in which the deck is stacked. The dice are weighted. And until we can get to a point where the die are no longer weighted and the deck is no longer stacked, we cannot be so complicit in the spread of hatred, and we must support students in their endeavors to think critically.

Contact Mina Shah at minashah at stanford.edu.

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Spread your hate elsewhere: in defense of student protesters of alt-right speakers - The Stanford Daily

While MSM Focuses on Insignificant Alt-Right, They Should Be All Over the Black Bloc – Townhall

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Posted: Apr 23, 2017 12:01 AM

As a regular reader, you would know that after the election I spent some time investigating the Alt-Right which was supposedly a major force in the Trump election. Mycolumnput a damper on the relevance of this group despite all the hoopla. Since the election, the Black Bloc has become a major disrupter in our country yet it is barely written or spoken about.

A friend asked me if I was aware of the group which in itself speaks volumes. The group traces its roots back to Europe during the 1980s. It had its most pronounced debut in the United States during the 1999 Seattle riots during the World Trade Organization meeting, but really traces back to 1991 protests at the World Bank building during the Persian War.

To be fair, while doing research I did find that the MSM has written about the Black Bloc. But in their inimitable style, the publications write one or two columns to cover their butts and say they have addressed the issue only to drop the subject. Reading accounts in the beacons of the MSM the New York Times and the Washington Post -- did not really address the lawlessness of the group and tended to romanticize the group because of their anti-Trump strains.

It is fascinating how, when covering Republican activities, the MSM almost always injects colorful adjectives or adverbs to characterize the subject. When addressing the Black Bloc, they seem to revert to being reporters. A February 2nd NYT article gave the Black Bloc a platform to define and defend their actions. They quoted the following about their actions in Berkeley, CA, on February 1: Yes, what the black bloc did last night was destructive to property wrote Eric Laursen, a writer in Massachusetts who has helped publicize anarchist protests, using another name for the black-clad demonstrators. But do you just let someone like Milo go wherever he wants and spread his hate? That kind of argument can devolve into just sit on your hands and wait for it to pass. And it doesnt.

The group is characterized by showing up to events dressed head-to-toe in black. The only thing you might see are their eyes. The idea is that the players retain anonymity. They typically meet near a planned protest like the one that occurred in Berkeley to protest Milo Yiannopoulos' speech. They were the ones responsible for the violence there and the violence at the Trump Inauguration. Though the police were near useless in stopping the violence in Berkeley, over 200 people were arrested in D.C.

A recurrent theme that the press repeats is that the group is not an organization, but kind of an ad hoc spontaneous activity. An article in The Nation by Natasha Lennard who participated in the January 20th violent protests amplifies this idea. She starts her column by heralding the beauty of actual Alt-Right leader Richard Spencer being sucker punched in the face. She goes on to state The black bloc is not a group but an anarchist tacticmarching as a confrontational united force, uniformed in black and anonymized for security. Once deployed, the tactic has an alchemic quality, turning into a temporary objecttheblack bloc. This theme was repeated throughout multiple articles in the MSM as if it were fact. Notice elements of the MSM who abhor violence throughout the pages of their publications accept violence against Trump supporters, Republicans and in general white men.

If we may, let us go over some concepts regarding the Black Bloc:

The police need to get serious about apprehending and imprisoning these criminals. If there is a protest planned, they can count on the fact that the Black Bloc will piggyback onto that protest and the police need to plan accordingly. The FBI should also be tracking the activities of the ring leaders. If some of these anonymous people are tried and imprisoned, it could deter the others from diverting their lives into this organized hooliganism. Also, the peaceful protesters have an obligation to either help the police or disband once these criminals show up.

The police and the MSM need to start some hysteria about these people before the violence escalates even further. That is what we do in a civilized society.

WATCH LIVE: White House Daily Press Briefing

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While MSM Focuses on Insignificant Alt-Right, They Should Be All Over the Black Bloc - Townhall

Twitter’s alt-right wants feminists to vote for Marine Le Pen because she’s a woman – The Daily Dot

French presidential candidate Marine Le Pen has been an alt-right favorite for a long time. Serving as the head of Frances right-wing nationalist party the National Front, the countrys hardcore conservatives want her in power.

And on the Internet, the alt-right thinks feminists should vote for her, too. Why? Because she would bethe first woman to serve as Frances president.

So-called feminists are trying to block people voting for a woman, Infowars editor-at-largePaul Joseph Watson tweeted. She would be the first female president of France. Let that sink in.

In reality, feminists largely disprove of Le Pens platform due to the socioeconomic damage she would create for immigrants, women of color, and Muslim residents.

But thealt-right wants to pit feminists against each other, suggesting that Western feminists cannot truly support women if they dont support every single woman that runs for office. Its an attempt to point out supposed hypocrisies in feminism, even though Le Pen isnt exactly a feministcandidate.

Other alt-right users quickly chimed in after Watsons post, claiming that Le Pen would make the best type of woman for the presidency. Some proceeded to attack Islam, connecting the election back to xenophobic fears against refugees in France.

Ironically enough, Watson proceeded to attackcontroversial feminist figureChristina Hoff Sommers,claiming that she is shilling for an establishment puppet in refusing to support Le Pen.

A Pew Research Center report on the French National Front revealsthat the National Front is popular among Catholics, men, and French citizens who have not gone to college. National Front supporters are more likely to dislike Muslims, fear refugees, reject the European Union, and view globalization as an unfavorable phenomenon.

Its safe to say that the alt-right has found apleasant home with the National Front.

Le Pen now is onto the second round of the French presidential election,facing off against Emmanuel Macrona pro-European Union candidate who will be in direct opposition to Le Pens anti-EU sentiments. Whether Le Pen will win or not is unclear, although it seems like the alt-right is bolstered by Sundays news.

H/T Rossalyn Warren

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Twitter's alt-right wants feminists to vote for Marine Le Pen because she's a woman - The Daily Dot

Alt-right targeting colleges, experts say. Is Georgia prepared? – Atlanta Journal Constitution

In March the Georgia Board of Regents adopted a system-wide freedom of expression policy limiting outside speakers and large demonstrations to specifically designated campus areas as a way of handling protests.

But its unclear if that policy would provide any protection against the type of speech that roiled the Auburn University campus Tuesdaywhen white supremacist Richard Spencer spoke in a rented campus auditorium.

Spencer, who became known nationally for coining the term alt-right to describe his mix of racial and populist conservatism, spoke before a crowd of at least 430 in Auburns Foy Hall, which included supporters, critics and reporters.Outside hundreds of counter-protesters demonstrated against him.

Late last week, Auburn administrators sought to block Spencer from speaking, claiming the event presented a danger to the campus. But a federal judge overruled the university on free speech grounds, allowing the event to go forward.

Experts who monitor racists and other extremist groups saythe alt-right is targeting universities. Lecia Brooks, outreach director for the Alabama-based Southern Poverty Law Center, said Auburn officials erred by trying to cancel the event. First, it flies in opposition to established First Amendment rights. Second, it handed Spencer a talking point.

Richard Spencer will use this event at Auburn to catapult himself to events at other universities, she said.

Is Georgia prepared for the campus recruiting efforts of white supremacists?Read more in this weeks AJC Watchdog column here.

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Alt-right targeting colleges, experts say. Is Georgia prepared? - Atlanta Journal Constitution