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In September, Germans will head to the polls to elect a new parliament. One of the parties expected to enter the Bundestag for the very first time is the Alternative fr Deutschland (or Alternative for Germany). Over the course of two years, as AfD has transitioned from an agenda of economic reform to one of nationalist populism, they have morphed into something resembling the American alt-right.

In 2012, a group of German conservatives and classical-liberal economists whohad defected from Angela Merkels center-right and the traditional liberal-democrat party found themselves associating with independent-voter groups in order to run for office on the local level. Soon, these conservatives, who were heavily critical of the European Unions economic interventionism and especially the European common currency, found themselves alienated by these existing platforms, and in 2013 they founded the AfD.

Soon after its creation, the party began to struggle with internal disagreements about the priorities of its political message: the classical liberals were keen on developing a German brand of Euroscepticismwhich, relative tothe Anglo-Saxon brand, would appear less aggressive and more academicwhile nativists and those who were religiously inspired pushed for more nationalism and social conservatism on issues like gay marriage (which remains illegal in Germany). These were internal fights over these differences during the 2013 election, which contributed to the AfD narrowly failing to enter parliament.

In 2014, the party continued its rise in the polls. It won electoral success in the European Parliament, local parliaments, and municipal councils. Former AfD chairmanBernd Lucke, a classical-liberal economist known for his numerous appearances on German TV shows dedicated to debates on the Euro and its effect on the European debt crisis, became the target of the nationalist wing of the party. But AfDs moment in the spotlight was short-lived. As the issue of Greece leaving the Euro was swept off the table and the Euro-crisis became uninteresting for the German media, so did the focus on the AfD.

Meanwhile, the stream of Syrian refugees coming into Germany intensified and a new right emerged. The so-called Patriotic Europeans Against the Islamisation of the West movement, or PEGIDA, rallied thousands of people throughout the country against the permissive immigration policy of Chancellor Merkel. Some PEGIDA demonstrations contained controversial chants,including the iconic Nazi media slur Lgenpresse, or featuredspeeches that smacked of modern-day Nuremberg rallies. The AfD split over some of its members support for PEGIDA, marking the beginning of the alt-right takeover of the AfD.

In fact, these gatherings bear strong similarities to what commentators in the United States refer to as the alt-right. What is all the more remarkable is that protagonists of the American movement, such asRichard Spencer, seem to follow the AfD handbook. Instead of starting their own political movement, they parasitically infest other groups and turn them inside out. This is precisely what happened to the AfD.

In 2015, one the AfDs most controversial high-ranking members, Bjrn Hcke, co-authored theErfurter Resolutionrequesting a major policy shift in the party. According to this manifesto, the new focus of the AfD should be A movement of the German people against the societal experiments of the past decades (like Gender-mainstreaming, multiculturalism).

Hcke is no stranger to controversy: he hasdescribed Judaism and Christianity as being in opposition toone another and haswished Germany a prosperous 1,000-year future, a well-known Nazi reference.

The partys moderates, appalled by the support behind the nationalist takeover, defected from the AfD and splintered into insignificant groups.

The now-radicalised right-wing party quickly backed off of any economic liberalism. The new chairwoman,Frauke Petry, performed complete u-turns on major policies. For instance, while she had previously called the newly introduced minimum wage a product of neo-socialism and loudly suggested abolishing it, today the AfDinsists on its existence in order to protect workers.

In this fashion, the nationalist right of the party is dismantling preceding leaders small-government approach in order to morph into a German version of the French National Front or Geert Wilderss Freedom Party in the Netherlands. This is the alt-right in practice: not only do they reject social democracy and pursue nativism, but their political goals have turned them into socialists and opponents of limited government.

Bill Wirtz is a law student at the Universit de Lorraine in Nancy, France. He blogs in four languages and has been published by the Foundation for Economic Education, the Mises Institute, the Washington Examiner, and daily Luxembourgish newspapers.

See the rest here:
Meet Germany's Alt-Right - The American Conservative

Now I know what it must be like for an alt-right devotee to have a bad acid trip. Seemingly overnight, the once solid nationalist credentials of Donald Trump have distorted into some Sgt. Pepper-like fantasy of globalism. His steadfast admiration for Russias strongman has kaleidoscoped into a marshmallow pie of affection for NATO. And those rotten, no-good currency manipulators in China are today as harmless as tangerine trees and marmalade skies. Even Janet Yellen, the head of the Federal Reserve that bastion of globalist financiers who once should have been ashamed of herself has now become a diamond in the sky, and the president says he may even reappoint her to another term.

Many always suspected (even hoped) that Trumps views were not fixed, but they are clearly plasticine, subject to manipulation by those in his favor and adapting to circumstance. One imagines the majority of Americans who didnt approve of him welcome the presidents shifts and wonder what took him so long. Many of his supporters who liked the nationalist rhetoric will probably be fine too. They probably think the media is making too much of them, and, besides, they are invested in him and will stick by him at least a little while longer.

But what of the true believers, like Steve Bannon and Stephen Miller? They must feel like the newspaper taxis have appeared on the shore, waiting to take them away. When youre one of them, what can you do? Well, according to the song, you can climb in the back with your head in the clouds and youre gone.

Go here to read the rest:
A psychedelic swan song for the alt-right - Washington Post (blog)

In September, Germans will head to the polls to elect a new parliament. One of the parties expected to enter the Bundestag for the very first time is the Alternative fr Deutschland (or Alternative for Germany). Over the course of two years, as AfD has transitioned from an agenda of economic reform to one of nationalist populism, they have morphed into something resembling the American alt-right.

In 2012, a group of German conservatives and classical-liberal economists whohad defected from Angela Merkels center-right and the traditional liberal-democrat party found themselves associating with independent-voter groups in order to run for office on the local level. Soon, these conservatives, who were heavily critical of the European Unions economic interventionism and especially the European common currency, found themselves alienated by these existing platforms, and in 2013 they founded the AfD.

Soon after its creation, the party began to struggle with internal disagreements about the priorities of its political message: the classical liberals were keen on developing a German brand of Euroscepticismwhich, relative tothe Anglo-Saxon brand, would appear less aggressive and more academicwhile nativists and those who were religiously inspired pushed for more nationalism and social conservatism on issues like gay marriage (which remains illegal in Germany). These were internal fights over these differences during the 2013 election, which contributed to the AfD narrowly failing to enter parliament.

In 2014, the party continued its rise in the polls. It won electoral success in the European Parliament, local parliaments, and municipal councils. Former AfD chairmanBernd Lucke, a classical-liberal economist known for his numerous appearances on German TV shows dedicated to debates on the Euro and its effect on the European debt crisis, became the target of the nationalist wing of the party. But AfDs moment in the spotlight was short-lived. As the issue of Greece leaving the Euro was swept off the table and the Euro-crisis became uninteresting for the German media, so did the focus on the AfD.

Meanwhile, the stream of Syrian refugees coming into Germany intensified and a new right emerged. The so-called Patriotic Europeans Against the Islamisation of the West movement, or PEGIDA, rallied thousands of people throughout the country against the permissive immigration policy of Chancellor Merkel. Some PEGIDA demonstrations contained controversial chants,including the iconic Nazi media slur Lgenpresse, or featuredspeeches that smacked of modern-day Nuremberg rallies. The AfD split over some of its members support for PEGIDA, marking the beginning of the alt-right takeover of the AfD.

In fact, these gatherings bear strong similarities to what commentators in the United States refer to as the alt-right. What is all the more remarkable is that protagonists of the American movement, such asRichard Spencer, seem to follow the AfD handbook. Instead of starting their own political movement, they parasitically infest other groups and turn them inside out. This is precisely what happened to the AfD.

In 2015, one the AfDs most controversial high-ranking members, Bjrn Hcke, co-authored theErfurter Resolutionrequesting a major policy shift in the party. According to this manifesto, the new focus of the AfD should be A movement of the German people against the societal experiments of the past decades (like Gender-mainstreaming, multiculturalism).

Hcke is no stranger to controversy: he hasdescribed Judaism and Christianity as being in opposition toone another and haswished Germany a prosperous 1,000-year future, a well-known Nazi reference.

The partys moderates, appalled by the support behind the nationalist takeover, defected from the AfD and splintered into insignificant groups.

The now-radicalised right-wing party quickly backed off of any economic liberalism. The new chairwoman,Frauke Petry, performed complete u-turns on major policies. For instance, while she had previously called the newly introduced minimum wage a product of neo-socialism and loudly suggested abolishing it, today the AfDinsists on its existence in order to protect workers.

In this fashion, the nationalist right of the party is dismantling preceding leaders small-government approach in order to morph into a German version of the French National Front or Geert Wilderss Freedom Party in the Netherlands. This is the alt-right in practice: not only do they reject social democracy and pursue nativism, but their political goals have turned them into socialists and opponents of limited government.

Bill Wirtz is a law student at the Universit de Lorraine in Nancy, France. He blogs in four languages and has been published by the Foundation for Economic Education, the Mises Institute, the Washington Examiner, and daily Luxembourgish newspapers.

Read more here:
Meet Germany's Alt-Right | The American Conservative - The American Conservative

Ive always said that I appreciate all my readers, both those who agree with me and those who dont. But lately Ive been puzzled by the new slurs directed at me by some of the latter. Many I didnt even understand, so I did some digging.

Apparently, tried-and-true insults such as fag, fairy, kike and hebe (yes, Im Jewish) are old-school, especially among the alt-right. That small, far-right movement that seeks a whites-only state is developing new coded language, much as the Nazis once did, says noted linguist George Lakoff, a professor emeritus at the University of California at Berkeley.

For instance, in February I wrote about Milo Yiannopoulos, the now-disgraced Breitbart News editor and alt-right poster boy. I heard from many readers about that column, which took Yiannopoulos to task for his incendiary language. But one email caught my eye: Milo is far less bigoted, misogynist, and hateful than those of you sick sociopathic and psychotic SJWs who smear him so desperately. Sick, sociopathic and psychotic, I knew. But SJW? I had no clue. In a personal ad it might mean straight Jewish woman, but two of those dont apply to me. So what was this snarky new gem of an insult?

I emailed back, What is an SJW? The reply: An SJW is a social justice warrior. In the press, this particular public predator tends to be big on PC [political correctness] virtue signaling but happy to smear others viciously with false accusations of sexism, racism, white nationalism, hate speech, etc.

Well, that was certainly clear Im a public predator allegedly guilty of smearing Yiannopoulos by referring to his very own, widely reported hateful language.

I started looking into other slurs readers hurled at me. There was libtard, and one I really liked at first snowflake, because theyre magical, in moderation.

But heres the nasty undercurrent: These new words are intrinsic to the alt-rights rise, according to Lakoff. He connects this to the Nazis and the coded language (prime example: the master race) that eventually allowed them to topple governmental institutions. The strategy is to control discourse, Lakoff points out. One way you do that is preemptive name calling . . . based on a moral hierarchy.

I asked what he meant by a moral hierarchy. God above man, man above nature, men above women. The strong above the weak. Christians above gays, he said, continuing with even more examples. Lakoff emphasized that this is different from the Democrats labeling some conservatives racist, sexist or homophobic which they do if only because that usage is not as canny or strategic.

Take Donald Trumps repeated characterization of Hillary Clinton as Crooked Hillary, Lakoff said. Say it often enough in public, and people start to believe it, and before you know it people such as Clinton are discredited. The whole idea is not to be civil, Lakoff says. The idea is to win.

With that in mind, heres a short primer on some of the alt-right coded language making the rounds:

Snowflake. This is no compliment, even if you like to think that youre one of a kind. At best, its a derisive term for someone considered entitled, which to those using it includes people of color, LGBT folks, students even Meryl Streep for her pro-kindness stance at the Golden Globes. Sarah McBride of the Human Rights Campaign told me that its often used against LGBT people in reference to pronoun usage, particularly nonbinary pronoun use, and the efforts on college campuses to be more aware and affirming of peoples pronouns. Used in a sentence, via Urban Dictionary: Hey snowflake, Trump won, deal with it. With one word youre dismissed as weak, feminine, juvenile a loser.

Libtard. Lib is for liberal, while tard is shorthand for retard. Bingo! If youre two thumbs down on political correctness, then what better insult than this combination? It even allows a bonus zing at folks with special needs.

Cuck. I heard this one while watching Bill Mahers HBO show several weeks ago. One of his guests kept using it. Its short for cuckservative, which is a word cocktail made up of equal parts conservative and cuckold. Urban Dictionary defines it as a racial slur for a White person that is not loyal to White Supremacy and offers this sample of use in a sentence: Jeb is such a cuck.

Masculinist. Im an out and proud feminist, but Id never heard of masculinist. According to Merriam-Webster, its an advocate of male superiority or dominance and is often used to promote traditional gender roles. The Oxford Dictionaries use it this way, in reference to the 1990s: The newly unified German parliament replicated the same masculinist pattern, celebrating its debut with less than 10percent women representatives. Thats the same as in pre-World War II Germany and theres that Nazi thing again.

Bottom line: It pays to increase your word power these days. Theres much more to alt-right coded language than meets the eye or the ear. Steven Petrow is a Social Justice Warrior, a public predator, a devotee of political correctness, and happy to tar and feather others with false accusations. If they say it often enough, you might believe it, and then you might not believe anything I write or say. Thats their whole point.

Agree or disagree with my perspective? Let me know in the comments section below.

You can reach the author on Facebook at facebook.com/stevenpetrow and on Twitter @stevenpetrow. Join him for a chat online at washingtonpost.com on April18 at 1p.m.

More:
The coded language of the alt-right is helping to power its rise - Washington Post

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Campus Reform, which is a part of The Leadership Institute Network, is an online news site that reports on incidents of political bias at institutions of higher education around the United States.

Although the site has an obvious conservative editorial stance, it is unclear whyArizona Daily Sun reporter Suzanne Adams-Ockrassa would choose to label the site alt-right.

The article detailed student concern that a video from a campus forumevent at Northern Arizona University appeared in an article at Campus Reform.

The video, which includes an NAU professor calling President Trump the rapist in chief, was posted in an article at Campus Reform and sparked backlash on campus and on social media.

Adams-Ockrassa also calls the Professor Watchlist, a project of Turning Point USA that serves as a directory of radical leftists in academia, an alt-right website, despite little evidence that Turning Point USA and the watchlist are anything other than products of mainstream conservatism.

Tom Ciccotta is a libertarian who writes about economics and higher education for Breitbart News. You can follow him on Twitter @tciccotta or email him at tciccotta@breitbart.com

Originally posted here:
Arizona Newspaper Falsely Brands Campus Watchdog Site 'Alt-Right' - Breitbart News