So Is Alt-Right a thing?

[Razgovory]

There really is only one unacceptable prejudice.  The type against Marty.

[Crazy_Ivan80]

It's kinda ironic that every country who ever got out of communism thinks these are horribly bad ideas - but Western leftists actually adopt them wholesale.

that's not ironic, it's caused by the fact the western leftists are more often than not communists at heart. The goals of the communists and socialists were the same, only the means differed (revolution vs incrementalism)

[Camerus]

Many prominent Western leftist intellectuals were quite sympathetic to Communism back in the day as well. Modern "identity politics" and it's supporting theories are the natural outgrowth Marxism in any case (though with an expansion or perhaps a shifting from class-based oppressed groups to race, gender and other areas) so it's hardly a surprise that such things would retain popularity in leftist intellectual circles today.

[mongers]

Leftist identity politics is hardly about equality any more - it is about special treatment for groups defined as oppressed, with a group that ranks higher on the oppression ladder trumping the group lower on the ladder (so while, say, gays trump Christians, women trump gays, and Muslims trump women). And if anyone preaches naked racism, it's racial supremacist groups such as Black Lives Matter.

Marty's march to the right continues unabated; he should just be careful who he ends up in lockstep with.

[Martinus]

I guess I always thought that Eastern European left is so inept in getting any political influence after 1989 because it does not have the experience of the Western left - it turns out Western Europeans are just more naive.

[Martinus]

Leftist identity politics is hardly about equality any more - it is about special treatment for groups defined as oppressed, with a group that ranks higher on the oppression ladder trumping the group lower on the ladder (so while, say, gays trump Christians, women trump gays, and Muslims trump women). And if anyone preaches naked racism, it's racial supremacist groups such as Black Lives Matter.

Marty's march to the right continues unabated; he should just be careful who he ends up in lockstep with.

I guess the Western left has lost its way. It used to be about the ideals of the Enlightenment but now it rejects some of its greatest historical heroes and instead embraces exotic multi-culti mumbo-jumbo. I guess it's time to switch allegiances.

[CountDeMoney]

Marty's march to the right continues unabated; he should just be careful who he ends up in lockstep with.

Several reptilian species are known to change color in order to throw off possible predators and blend into hostile surroundings. 

[Eddie Teach]

Marty's march to the right continues unabated; he should just be careful who he ends up in lockstep with.

I'm not sure it is a march to the right. I've long held that the variety of positions taken on social issues can't be shoehorned into a linear scale. There are at least three schools of thought found along the edges of that framework- libertarianism, conservatism, and paternalistic egalitarianism. Though people on the right-wing are usually conservative and people on the left-wing usually egalitarian, it would be wrong to conclude the libertarian's beliefs fall between them. It is more like a triangle than a line.

[Grinning_Colossus]

Leftist identity politics is hardly about equality any more - it is about special treatment for groups defined as oppressed, with a group that ranks higher on the oppression ladder trumping the group lower on the ladder (so while, say, gays trump Christians, women trump gays, and Muslims trump women). And if anyone preaches naked racism, it's racial supremacist groups such as Black Lives Matter.

Marty's march to the right continues unabated; he should just be careful who he ends up in lockstep with.

I guess the Western left has lost its way. It used to be about the ideals of the Enlightenment but now it rejects some of its greatest historical heroes and instead embraces exotic multi-culti mumbo-jumbo. I guess it's time to switch allegiances.

There's a semi-thriving alt-left that is skeptical of the cultural turn and wants to keep the focus on material conditions. Check out Matt Bruenig, Fredrik deBoer, and (to a degree) Jacobin.

There are at least three schools of thought found along the edges of that framework- libertarianism, conservatism, and paternalistic egalitarianism. Though people on the right-wing are usually conservative and people on the left-wing usually egalitarian, it would be wrong to conclude the libertarian's beliefs fall between them. It is more like a triangle than a line.

Anarchists hate your triangle.

[Eddie Teach]

I'm open to the existence of further independent axes, but no matter how many get added, anarchists will fall through the cracks.

[Martinus]

Marty's march to the right continues unabated; he should just be careful who he ends up in lockstep with.

I'm not sure it is a march to the right. I've long held that the variety of positions taken on social issues can't be shoehorned into a linear scale. There are at least three schools of thought found along the edges of that framework- libertarianism, conservatism, and paternalistic egalitarianism. Though people on the right-wing are usually conservative and people on the left-wing usually egalitarian, it would be wrong to conclude the libertarian's beliefs fall between them. It is more like a triangle than a line.

Yup, and I have always held very "classic liberal"/"libertarian" views, though focusing more on cultural and social issues than the economic ones (the view that sadly has always been in a minority). Until recently (and I guess it is still the case in culturally backward countries like Poland), Christian religious conservatives had posed the greatest threat to these ideals and the left was an ally in this war - but at least in the West Christian conservatives have lost the cultural war and are in a total retreat. Instead, two new threats to these ideas emerged - on one hand the paternalistic/authoritarian progressives that want to control speech and expression and on the other non-Christian religious conservatives, especially Muslim ones (the both of groups forming some sort of unholy alliance which boggles mind and belies any logic). So it's about time to switch the alliance.

[jimmy olsen]

Apparently the movement is about cats and monarchy.

http://www.vox.com/2016/4/18/11434098/alt-right-explained