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Online personality Mike Cernovich fabricated the existence of a new right movement to downplay his active relationships with alt-right media personalities and white nationalist thought leaders. But like the nonsense diet supplements and self-help books that Cernovich hawks to his audience, the new right should be treated for what it is: a load of marketing bullshit.

The truth is that although Cernovich and his media pals will claim they dont advocate white nationalism in the same way that alt-right leaders likeRichard Spencerdo, the so-called new right has actively parroted the alt-right to build its brands. It is a mistake to give the new right a chance to disown the relationships that helped it blossom.

Cernovich coined the term new right last year after hebannedalt-right media personality Tim Treadstone, known online as Baked Alaska, from attending an inauguration party Treadstone had assisted Cernovich in planning called The Deploraball. Treadstone had published several tweets about the Jewish Question an anti-Semitic conspiracy theory that suggests Jewish people scheme to dominate global media and governments. Cernovich replaced Treadstone withequally terriblealt-right personalityMilo Yiannopoulos, who had been banned from Twitter for inciting a racially motivatedharassment campaignand was laterdisinvitedfrom the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) after a video surfaced in which he appears to condone pedophilia. The drama fractured the alt-right media landscape into factions, with some hoping to rebrand and distance themselves from the openly white nationalist fan base they had used to inspire their brands.

After uninviting Treadstone, Cernovich introduced the concept of the new right in aninterviewwith Paul Joseph Watson, editor-at-large of the conspiracy theory website Infowars, denouncingwhite supremacist messages spread by some members of the alt-right. After the interview, Watson alsopeddled the conceptof a new right to his fan base on social media, claiming that there are two Alt-Rights and that one faction is more accurately described as the New Right. Watson claimed the new right includes people who wear Trump hats, create memes [and] have fun. This group, he wrote, is entirely separate from a tiny fringe minority of people under the alt-right banner who obsess about Jews, racial superiority and Adolf Hitler.

The public relations move worked, and soon many other notable pro-Trump new-media personalities were clustered under the new right brand coined by Cernovich. They includedVox Day, who wrote amanifestoon what it means to be alt-right that claimed diversity + proximity = war; alt-right poster boy Milo Yiannopoulos, whopraisedthe groups membership; The Gateway Pundits Lucian Wintrich, who made an alt-righthand signalin the White House briefing room; and blogger Stefan Molyneux, who receiveswide praiseamong white nationalist groups.

CernovichtoldThe Atlanticthat he for sure pictured himself as the leader of the new right and that he and his media partners want to do nationalism without white identity politics. Cernovichexplained toNew Yorkmagazinethat his initial support for the alt-right was based on a misunderstanding: He didnt realize it was, like, a white, ethno-nationalist thing. Right Side Broadcast Network (RSBN), whichhired Cernovichto host a program on the pro-Trump news stream,defendedCernovich and allowed him to whitewash his track record of vile statements.

But Cernovich and his new-media allies openly pandered to a growing pro-Trump alt-right media audience during the 2016 election by publishing media meant topromotefearof Muslims and pieces thatattackedsocial justice warriors andotherswho speak out against the sexist, misogynistic, and racist rhetoric Cernovich and other alt-right personalities spew. Cernovich also onceannouncedthat his next project would be part alt-right, part fitness, part anti-cuck, and he haspraisedthe alt-right movement as sophisticated, suspicious, and combative anddeclaredit woke. The ignorance defense the new right is using is soiled by these figures year-long track record of employing such rhetoric to bolster one anothers public profiles.

Cernovich and his new-media allies are snake oil salesmen who adopt whatever controversial punditry will earn them publicity and let them promote their bogusproducts. For example, Cernovich uses his platform to sell copies of hisself-help bookfor men and promote his in-development experimental nootropic pills that heclaimedwill regrow neurons inside the brain and build a supercharged mind that most people cant handle.

The new right is nothing more than a shallow attempt to legitimize commentary that draws upon the alt-right philosophy, which has been used to promote conspiracy theories like the Pizzagate claim that top Democratic officials were complicit in a Washington, D.C., child sex-trafficking ring run out of a pizza restaurant. Media should not grant Cernovich and his colleagues a free pass to abandon the alt-right talking points that they used to force themselves into media relevancy in the first place.

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Meet the new right. Same as the alt-right - Salon.com - Salon

Stephen Miller, senior adviser to President Donald Trump arrives for a meeting with business leaders in the Roosevelt Room of the White House in Washington, Monday, Jan. 30, 2017. CREDIT: AP Photo/Evan Vucci

President Donald Trumps top adviser, former Breitbart CEO Steve Bannon, is widely viewed as the leader of the administrations nationalist-populist winga more palatable euphemism for the white nationalist coterie that tried to block travel to the U.S. from seven Muslim-majority countries and is currently spearheading a deportation spree across the United States.

As Bannons influence within the administration has diminished, many commentators have taken this as a sign that his ideology has also fallen out of favor with the president, to be replaced by the ostensible technocratic moderation of son-in-law-in-chief Jared Kushner.

But Bannon isnt the only apostle of Bannonism in the White House. And as his star fades, the power of another extreme nationalist seems to be growing.

On Thursday night, Politico reported that senior adviser Stephen Miller has managed to endear himself to Kushner and is now working closely with Kushners Office of American Innovation. Up until now, Millers biggest policy achievement was helping to draft both versions of Trumps Muslim ban executive orderand then inadvertently sinking the second bans chances of surviving a legal challenge by announcing on national television that both orders had the same intent.

Millera protege of Attorney General Jeff Sessions, another member of the administrations hard line ethno-nationalist campalso wrote both Trumps inaugural American carnage address, and, reportedly, his I alone can fix it speech to the Republican National Convention.

If Miller is gaining more sway over the administrations policy agenda, then Bannons apparent demotion means little. The Pepe brigade still has plenty of friends in the West Wing.

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Bannon's decline isn't the end of the White House's 'alt-right' - ThinkProgress

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.

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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.

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

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.

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Meet Germany's Alt-Right | The American Conservative - The American Conservative