Welcome to DU! The truly grassroots left-of-center political community where regular people, not algorithms, drive the discussions and set the standards. Join the community: Create a free account Support DU (and get rid of ads!): Become a Star Member Latest Breaking News Editorials & Other Articles General Discussion The DU Lounge All Forums Issue Forums Culture Forums Alliance Forums Region Forums Support Forums Help & Search
 

Madam45for2923

(7,178 posts)
Fri Dec 16, 2016, 09:49 AM Dec 2016

How d alt-right became racist: A short history of hate:b4 Trump, white nationalists flocked 2 R.Paul

How the alt-right became racist, Part 1: A short history of hate

What's now called the alt-right actually began as a conservative resistance — against George W. Bush

http://www.salon.com/2016/12/08/how-the-alt-right-became-racist-a-short-history-of-hate-part-1/



How the alt-right became racist, Part 2: Long before Trump, white nationalists flocked to Ron Paul

In our next installment, Ron Paul's presidential campaign becomes the breeding ground for 50 shades of cray-cray

http://www.salon.com/2016/12/09/how-the-alt-right-became-racist-part-2-long-before-trump-white-nationalists-flocked-to-ron-paul/




Rise of the alt-right: Part 3: How mainstream conservatives’ obsession with purity fueled a new right-wing radicalism

The GOP's endless battles over who is or isn't a "true conservative" created a movement it couldn't control

http://www.salon.com/2016/12/14/rise-of-the-alt-right-how-mainstream-conservatives-empowered-racism-and-engineered-their-own-destruction/

2 replies = new reply since forum marked as read
Highlight: NoneDon't highlight anything 5 newestHighlight 5 most recent replies
How d alt-right became racist: A short history of hate:b4 Trump, white nationalists flocked 2 R.Paul (Original Post) Madam45for2923 Dec 2016 OP
How it all began Madam45for2923 Dec 2016 #1
These are pretty informative! Madam45for2923 Dec 2016 #2
 

Madam45for2923

(7,178 posts)
1. How it all began
Fri Dec 16, 2016, 09:52 AM
Dec 2016


Frequently held to be a brand-new phenomenon or merely a reincarnated version of old-school Southern segregationism, the alt-right is actually neither. Many of the people and ideas that bind the movement go back a long way, even if they don’t quite hearken back to the likes of John C. Calhoun.

Looking at the early history of the movement, long before the social-media trolls got involved, one can more clearly see that one of the principles that got the alt-right started was an intense dislike of former president George W. Bush — and his foreign policy in particular. Indeed, criticizing and debunking the neoconservatives who dominated the Bush administration has been Gottfried’s lifelong project.

Although he rejects the alt-right label today, Gottfried affixed it to himself in the summer of 2008 when he teamed up with a 30-year-old editor named Richard Spencer to create a conference for right-wingers who regarded Dubya as a warmongering liberal who had betrayed conservatism and surrendered to leftist political correctness.

Gottfried delivered a speech that November to the first meeting of his H.L. Mencken Club titled “The Decline and Rise of the Alternative Right.” It focused on the conflict that occurred in the 1970s and ’80s when many hawkish Democrats had migrated to the Republican Party and began dominating its institutions. The neoconservatives, as they were eventually called, had made a mess of the GOP and America as a whole, Gottfried argued, but their right-wing opponents (he had earlier coined the term “paleoconservatives” in 1986 to describe them) were continually unable to do anything about it because they were so ideologically divided.

According to his address, Gottfried intended to do something to promote collaboration and unity against the common enemy. The alt-right was that something.

Spencer, who later went on to start a (now-defunct) webzine called Alternative Right, played a big part in conference organizing for the nascent group. He also gave addresses at subsequent Mencken Club meetings, but eventually the two men grew apart as Spencer developed more than an academic fascination with fascism and white separatism.

“Richard, I think, has gone on out on a limb to create a more extreme, racialist right,” Gottfried, 75, told Salon in a telephone interview last month. His preferred stance then (and now) was more about “anti-anti-racism” and opposing leftist political correctness, he said.

Another factor in their disaffection was an address that Spencer gave at the Mencken Club’s 2011 meeting, in which he heaped praise upon Madison Grant, an early 20th-century conservationist who was also an advocate of the bogus racial science known as eugenics.

Spencer’s speech was not well-received by the crowd. According to a contemporary account of the conference proceedings, at least one audience member walked out in protest.


Continues in the links above.
Latest Discussions»Retired Forums»2016 Postmortem»How d alt-right became ra...