Archive for the ‘Alt-right’ Category

Editorial: ‘Alt-right’ movement isn’t conservatism – Tyler Morning Telegraph

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.

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

Responding To Anti-Semitism In The Age Of The ‘Alt-Right’ – Huffington Post

Two weeks ago, a man wearing a swastika armband showed up twice on our university campus. Citing his First Amendment right to freedom of speech, Michael Dewitz, 34, questioned the Holocaust and extolled the Nazi party, seemingly well aware that authorities could legally do nothing to obstruct him.

Coincidentally or not, his unwelcome visits happened to fall during the week of International Holocaust Remembrance Day, a day the United Nations designated to commemorate the victims of the genocide that resulted in the murder of over six million Jews, along with homosexuals, disabled people, and other groups the Nazis deemed undesirable.

Alan Alvarez / The Independent Florida Alligator

That same day, President Trump provoked anger within the Jewish community when he signed an executive order banning Syrian refugees from entering the United States, evoking memories of Jewish refugees turned away from U.S. shores during World War II, and then proceeded to issue a statement regarding Holocaust Remembrance Day which failed to mention Jews or anti-Semitism at alla move later endorsed by white supremacist Richard Spencer.

Last week, the latest in a series of ongoing bomb threats were called in to Jewish Community Centers in Albany, N.Y.; Syracuse, N.Y.; West Orange, N.J.; Milwaukee, Wis.; San Diego, Calif.; and Salt Lake City, UT. The centers were evacuated, and though the threats were deemed not to be credible after the fact, that did not quench the feelings of intense vulnerability and uneasiness that lingered.

Over the weekend, Chicago authorities released a surveillance video of a man smashing the front window of a synagogue and placing swastika stickers on the front door. In Houston, Rice University campus police launched an investigation after a swastika was drawn on the base of a school statue. In Manhattan, passengers on a subway car witnessed anti-Semitic graffiti, including swastikas and the phrases Jews belong in the oven and Destroy Israel, Heil Hitler, scribbled with Sharpie over advertisements and windows. As passengers sat in uncomfortable silence, one brave man announced that the alcohol in hand sanitizer could remove Sharpie. Promptly, passengers searched their pockets for sanitizer and tissues, and proceeded to scrub away the hate-filled messages.

Photo by Gregory Locke

These instances are only the most recent in a long list of hate crimes that have been targeting the Jewish community. The Federal Bureau of Investigation reported that of the 1,402 victims of anti-religious hate crimes reported in the United States in 2015, 52.1 percent were victims of crimes motivated by anti-Jewish bias. Based on the dramatic spike in hate crimes following the recent presidential election, there is reason to suspect the 2016 figures will be even higher.

Some people find these statistics hard to swallow for several reasons. Just as there are still those who think racism is a specter of the past because America elected a black president, some look to Jewish individuals who have risen to positions of prominence and influence and conclude that anti-Semitism died with Hitler. Moreover, there is often a conflation of race with ethnicity, nationality, and religion when it comes to defining Jewish identity, which is complex and far from monolithic. Some inaccurately assume that all Jews are of Eastern European descent and neatly fit into the paradigm of whiteness. In reality, Jews are predominantly an ethnoreligious people, and we can be found across a wide and diverse racial and ethnic spectrum. We are proud members of Black, Asian, and Latinx communities. In Israel, where a majority of Jews hail from across the Middle East and Northern Africa, Jews of color are the norm.

However, in the United States, where a majority of Jews are of Eastern European ancestry and tend to be fairer in complexion, it is sometimes difficult for some to comprehend the legacy of fiery hatred and discrimination that these white Jews have themselves faced at the hands of white supremacist groups. To truly understand anti-Semitism, one cannot look through the lens of race-based discrimination alone. This insidious form of bigotry goes beyond racism and colorism, affecting Jews of all races and hues. Even light-skinned Jews with blonde hair and blue eyes were targeted for extermination by Hitler and his mass-murdering Nazi regime. Of the Jewish refugees aboard the S.S. St. Louis who were cast away from the shores of the United States and sent back to their untimely deaths in Europe, the majority were from Germany and other predominantly white European countries.

Associated Press

Anti-Semitism at its core is based on conceptions of ethnoreligious, cultural and nationalistic otherness. Thus, we have historically seen such prejudice manifested through the depiction of Jews as Christ-killers; as greedy, swindling shysters; as all-powerful, sinister puppet masters of media and politics; as inherently disloyal citizens incapable of true assimilation.

We often hear chants of Never Again from within the Jewish community. Our generation has grown up hearing first-hand the personal accounts of Holocaust survivors, and we are all too aware that we will likely be the last. Some of us within the community are descendants of Holocaust survivors, carrying the anguish of those who came before us in our genes, allowing them to live their lives through us. As survivors are dying out, we have promised to pass on their stories. We have taken the words of Elie Wiesel to heart: When you listen to a witness, you become a witness. But now, less than one hundred years after the Holocaust, we see warning signs that Never Again is already happening. In Europe, anti-Semitism is once again thriving. Moreover, Rwanda, Darfur, Bosnia, and Kosovo stand as shameful stains on the hands of history, attesting to the fact that the possibility of genocide is ever-present.

Despite isolated incidents, the United States has more or less been a haven for our people since the end of World War II. For many American Jews, this has been the only home we have known. Thus, these increasing incidents of unfounded hatred are profoundly disconcerting.

For decades, American Jews have stood alongside other marginalized groups as allies. In the 1960s, we marched in the Civil Rights Movement. Today, we stand alongside our brothers and sisters proclaiming Black Lives Matter. We position ourselves on the ground among those at Standing Rock. We advocate for LGBTQ rights, womens rights, and Muslim rights. Many Jewish organizations like the Anti-Defamation League, originally constructed with the purpose of fighting anti-Semitism following World War II, have since expanded their mission to encompass all forms of bigotry. Perhaps due to our own collective trauma, social justice runs through our veins, heeding us to stand up to injustice anywhere as a threat to justice everywhere. Otherwise, Never Again will be nothing more than a hollow slogan.

Photo by Wilson Dizard (SOURCE: http://mondoweiss.net/2016/08/hundreds-lives-matter)

Now as anti-Semitism again rears its ugly head, we reach out to those with whom we have stood, and with whom we continue to stand, asking you to stand also with us, to show up on our behalf, to not be silent or indifferent to our struggle. Just as non-Jewish residents of Billings, Mont., placed menorahs in their windowsills during Hanukkah in 1993 to demonstrate their solidarity with the Jewish community following waves of anti-Semitism, we need allies today who will rise up, who will refuse to let their citiesor even their subwaysbe overrun by hatred, who will place figurative menorahs in their windowsills, allowing the collective light to drive away the darkness of discrimination. Most importantly, we need our generation to know that the Holocaust and its symbols, far from being mere relics of the past, continue to bear witness today, serving as reminders of what can happen to any minority group subjected to bigotry. The hatred fueling the fires that consumed so many of our ancestors was never fully extinguished.

When hatemongers like Michael Dewitz and Richard Spencer like to hide behind the free speech protections of the First Amendment, they ought to be reminded that the First Amendment does not protect them from private actors exercising their free speech rights to call them outloudlyon their bullshit. When Dewitz arrived on our campus for the second time two weeks ago, we were encouraged to see the outpouring of students and faculty members rallying against him in protest.

Over the next four years, as the political climate grows more hostile, as hate groups are emboldened, as civil rights activists and lawyers launch the fight of their lives to uphold liberty and justice for all, we pray that these words from our tradition guide us together along the way:

Standing on the parted shores, we still believe what we were taught before ever we stood at Sinais foot; that wherever we go, it is eternally Egypt; that there is a better place, a promised land; that the winding way to that promise passes through the wilderness. That there is no way to get from here to there except by joining hands, marching together.

Lauren Levy, 3L, and Yuval Manor, 1L, are law students at the University of Florida Levin College of Law. Lauren is the current President of the UF Jewish Law Students Association. Yuval Manor, an Israeli-American, is a third-generation descendant of Holocaust survivors.

Originally posted here:
Responding To Anti-Semitism In The Age Of The 'Alt-Right' - Huffington Post

‘Alt-right’ is not all right – Green Bay Press Gazette

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Letter to the editor 10:03 a.m. CT Feb. 6, 2017

Old typewriter(Photo: Getty Images/iStockphoto)

GREEN BAY - It is difficult to read a newspaper today without seeing a reference to the alt-right; an expression most of us had never heard a year ago. New words are developed all the time; helicopter parent and frenemy are prime examples. Most new words simply make it easier to express ourselves, but there is something much more sinister about the usage of alt-right.

White nationalist Richard Spencer coined the term alt-right in 2010, it first came into common usage through its use by Breitbart News chair Steve Bannon, now White House chief strategist for Donald Trump.

The term alt-right is used to refer to groups that formerly were called white supremacists, Neo-Nazis, KKK, or racists. On the evening news we see rallies with people giving the Nazi salute, chanting Sieg Heil and Hail Trump, and they are referred to as alt-right rather than neo-Nazis.

In some cases the press intentionally uses the expression to sanitize racist behavior, but many times I think the expression is used because it is just too horrifying to fathom that our president could not have been elected without the support of the most extreme racist groups, and that Trump has a white supremacist, Steve Bannon, as his chief strategist.

I dont know whether Trump is a racist, but he did everything possible to woo the racist vote; from Obama-birther, Mexican rapists, to radical Islamic terrorists.

I am calling on the press to reject the words alt-right; they misrepresent something that is truly evil.

Charles Frisk

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'Alt-right' is not all right - Green Bay Press Gazette

The alt-right thinks Lady Gaga’s Super Bowl 51 performance was a satanic ritual – The Independent

By almost all accounts, Lady Gagas halftime Super Bowl performance was astounding, the singers stage antics wowing all those watching.

However, before the match started, infamous alt-right spokesperson and InfoWars founder Alex Jones took to Facebook to warn followers not to watch Gagas show because shes the spawn of Satan and part of the New World Order.

After claiming Gaga does rituals and pointing out she once wore a meat suit, Jones said the Super Bowl organisers are deciding to defile America and break our will by having us bow down to this.

They say shes going to stand on top of the stadium, ruling over everyone with drones everywhere, surveilling everyone in a big swarm, he said. To just condition them to say I am the Godess of Satan ruling over them with the rise of the robots in a ritual of lesser magic.

He continues to rant about the New World Order, how Trump has ruined Gagas Satanic plan to dominate the world, and slapping himself on the back for being a free thinker.

Comments underneath the Facebook post echoed Jones's sentiment, while some also brought up the illuminati.

To be fair, there were a lot of triangles during Gagas performance. Illuminati confirmed? Probably. Meanwhile, in an even more suspicious occurrence, The Simpsons seemingly predicted Gagas Super Bowl performance. Will the New World Order ever stop messing with us?

The alt-right movement, a loose group of people with far right ideologies who reject mainstream Conservatism, has been associated with white supremacism, Islamophobia, antifeminism and anti-Semitism. It was little known until lastyear, when it endorsedTrumps election campaign and he appeared to endorse the movement back. Alex Joneshas been labelled 'alt-right'on numerous occasions.

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The alt-right thinks Lady Gaga's Super Bowl 51 performance was a satanic ritual - The Independent

UW-Madison student abandons ‘alt-right’ group, will take leave of absence – The Daily Cardinal

Daniel Dropik, 33, who attempted to form a Madison chapter of the American Freedom Party in January, has given up trying to bring the alt-right organization to campus and will take a break from his studies.

A student who attempted to form a Madison chapter of the American Freedom Party in January has abandoned his plans to bring the alt-right organization to campus, according to theAssociated Press.

Daniel Dropik, a computer science student, originally sparked outrage when he handed out flyers advertising the group and urging students to fight anti-white racism.

Dropik, 33, will also take a break from his studies, according to William Johnson, the national chairman of the American Freedom Party. UW spokesperson Meredith McGlone told The Daily Cardinal that Dropik is still enrolled at the school as of Feb. 6.

Johnson told the Associated Press that he urged Dropik to continue advertising the organization, but that Dropik feared for his safety. Dropik said in January he had received a number of pieces of hate mail.

Dropik became an even more polarizing figure on campus after Chancellor Rebecca Blank confirmed he had committed two racially motivated crimes in 2005. Afterward, hundreds of students participated in a march against Dropik and the American Freedom Party.

Kat Kerwin, one of the organizers of the protest, said her organization, the Student Coalition for Progress, views Dropiks abandonment of the group as a triumph of deliberate democracy.

[SCP] is cautiously optimistic about Dropiks decision, Kerwin said in a statement. We recognize how much work remains to be done we will continue to organize resistance.

Daniel Dropik did not immediately respond to request for comment.

Excerpt from:
UW-Madison student abandons 'alt-right' group, will take leave of absence - The Daily Cardinal