The Alternative-Right harms American ideals
This year, millions of American citizens will have to make their defining political choice, one that will decide the leader of the nation for the next four years. Among the pool of politically responsible citizens lies an extremist faction. They breed values of strong hatred against minorities such as the LGBTQ community, Jews and essentially anyone who isn’t a straight white male. Racial hatred and oppression forms the core of their values. They rally behind presidential candidate Donald Trump, who they hail as the savior of white nationalism. Theses people are the Alt-Right, and they preach an ultra right-wing, nationalist ideology.
The Alt-Right breeds racial hatred and discrimination and oppresses minorities. This rhetoric is spearheaded by the de-facto leader of the alt-right, Milo Yiannopoulos, who was recently banned from Twitter for directing hate speech towards African-American actor Leslie Jones. Despite all evidence pointing to them resurrecting Neo-Nazi values, such as the use of the 14/88 slogan (with the 14 referring to Hitler’s manifesto, and the 88 referring to the phrase “Heil Hitler”).
Milo Yiannopoulos denies this. “Skinheads, by and large, are low-information, low-IQ thugs driven by the thrill of violence and tribal hatred. The Alternative Right are a much smarter group of people — which perhaps suggests why the Left hates them so much. They’re dangerously bright”, he claims in his Breitbart essay. The Alt-Right’s dream of creating a white nationalist nation suggests otherwise. While Yiannopoulos claims “1488ers are the equivalent of the Black Lives Matter supporters who call for the deaths of policemen, or feminists who un-ironically want to #KillAllMen ….”, he denies the heart of the Alt-Right, dangerous, mainstream extremism.
The Alt-Right brands itself as a new wave of social revolutionaries, fighting against the oppression of liberals everywhere. While calling itself “dangerously bright,” the alt-right has done nothing to suggest that. Instead it spreads hatred against Muslim’s and preaches the idea of genetic purity, under the guise of “satire”. While the Alt-Right tries to fight against being politically correct, it does so by spewing Jewish-hating rhetoric. There’s a fine line between fighting against censorship and being a white supremacist. These are the same people who support candidate Donald Trump’s hardline conservative views, which include building a wall to keep out immigrants at the Mexican border. With the power of the Alt-Right and an incredibly powerful person like Donald Trump, any progress in America seems threatened.
In the end, what exactly is the Alt-Right, and where does it fit in America and her politics? Milo Yiannopoulos says so himself: “The Alt-Right openly crack jokes about the Holocaust, loudly — albeit almost entirely satirically — expresses its horror at ‘race-mixing,’ and denounces the ‘degeneracy’ of homosexuals… while inviting Jewish gays and mixed-race Breitbart reporters to their secret dinner parties. What gives?” In this the alt-right are summed up for what it is: an extremist conservative group with frequent contradictions in what it stands for. The Alt-Right is neither liberal nor particularly conservative. It is a blend of the darkest, most extreme aspects of American culture, and is taking its blend to the elections. It is this fringe group that forms the heart of Donald Trump’s supporters, and threatens to wreck America as we know it today, through blatant xenophobia, hate and outright disregard for others.
This year is Arul's first year at the Tribune. He joined Journalism to employ his skills in writing and current events. Arul greatly enjoys AP Euro homework and the discography of the Rolling Stones, in addition...
