In many regards, the Alt-Right is the culmination of all reactionary thought not officially endorsed by establishment conservatives in the United States. Unsurprisingly, this explains why many notable figures in the Alt-Right movement, like Richard Spencer,Milo Yiannopoulos and Steve Bannon have emerged from fringe conservative media organizations. Likewise, these Alt-Right luminaries all have a common feature of frequently appropriating left-wing tactics and ideologies.In the case of Spencer, he frequently self-identifies as an "Identitarian", meaning that he subscribes to an ideology originating in Europe that reframes white nationalist rhetoric by using Left concepts such as identity politics and cultural diversity. In Spencer's view, white European culture has been undergoing "deconstruction" due to immigration and the advancement of the rights of minorities, and the only way to stop this is by "peaceful ethnic cleansing" and the creation of a white European ethno-state.
Similarly, fellow Alt-Right all-star Milo Yiannopoulos calls himself a libertarian, constantly berates authoritarianism and has no qualms about being openly gay. Moreover, Yiannopoulos is exceptionally technologically savvy and has been successful in mobilizing mass support online among segments of young people who were previously politically inactive. This is akin to the 2008 election, when Barack Obama's presidential campaign was able to mobilize youth support through their use of social media. While there are many characteristics that set Yiannopoulos apart from establishment conservatives, he is still an especially dangerous figure. For example, in 2014 he led his army of trolls to attack female video game coders by alleging that the video game industry was being ruined by "an army of sociopathic feminist programmers and campaigners, abetted by achingly politically correct American tech bloggers." This resulted in many female coders being harassed and threatened with rape. In 2016, Yiannopoulos and his followers went after the female cast of the movie
Ghostbusters by alleging that it was, "a movie to help lonely middle-aged women feel better about being left on the shelf." He went on to call lead actress Leslie Jones "a black dude", which only fueled the online terror, as Leslie Jones also became the victim of cyber attacks and had very intimate pictures of her leaked online. In addition to his repeated attacks on women, Yiannopoulos has repeatedly spoken out against the LGBT community despite being gay himself, stating that "gay rights have made us dumber".
The third prominent member of the Alt-Right mentioned above, Steve Bannnon, is also the one that is the most blatant in appropriating leftist ideology and applying it to his right-wing movement. Conservative historian Ronad Radosh has claimed that Bannon admitted to taking inspiration from Vladimir Lenin in respect to dismantling the existing political establishment. Bannon, who is currently serving as the Trump administration's Chief Strategist, previously served as the head of Breitbart News, an influential media outlet that serves those on the Right that are younger and more technologically adept than the typical conservative that watches Fox News.Additionally, he was also heavily involved in the Tea Party movement that arose in 2009 during Obama's first term as President. There should be no surprise that Bannon takes inspiration from left-wing sources considering his involvement in the Tea Party, a movement that liberally applied the tactics of Saul Alinsky and the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960's.
The phenomena of reactionary movements appropriating from left movements has occurred throughout history. For example, after the American Revolution, both the left and right spectra of American politics claimed descent from liberalism and the ideas of the Enlightenment. As a result, reactionary practices like slavery were being defended with liberal terminology; this explains why southern states have long condemned the Civil War as an example of tyranny and government aggression on the rights of citizens. Comparably, in the years after World War 1, fascism emerged in an era where the socialist and anarchist movements had drastically changed the liberal paradigm that Europe was in following the Enlightenment. Hence,fascism emerged as an ideology that heavily
borrowed concepts from left movements such as socialism and anarchism, such as the importance of an armed party vanguard, direct action and the need for dismantling existing state structures. It is important to mention that even though reactionary movements take inspiration from leftist ideology tactics, their goals always counter to those on the left. In the case of the Alt-Right, it is abundantly clear that the movement wants to destroy the significant gains made made by the social justice campaigns of the last 50 years, which is evident in their aggressive anti-feminist, anti-immigrant, anti-racial justice crusade. Similarly, even though fascism borrowed from socialism and anarchism, fascists prided themselves on being sworn enemies of any and all leftists and embarked on an
anti socialist campaign in Italy starting in the 1920's until the end of World War 2.
The reason for reactionary movements appropriating from the Left is simply because the Right is built on the principle of maintaining or reverting back to the status quo while the Left is continually at struggle with existing structures in pursuit of a better and more just future. An ideology cannot generate dynamic new ideas on its own if the entire basis of it is rooted in keeping society static and orderly. Change and progress often result in some degree of chaos or originate from chaotic situations. In the Hegelian lexicon, synthesis is the reconciliation between the conflicts of the thesis and antithesis. Therefore, it is only logical to expect the Right to constantly adapt and reemerge in its struggle against Left, as the whole history universe can be boiled down to a series of progression and regression.
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