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The alt-right is a segment of right-wing ideologies presented as an alternative to mainstream conservatism in the politics of the United States.^[1] The alt-right has been described as a movement unified by support for Republican Presidential candidate Donald Trump,^[2][3][4] as well as opposition to multiculturalism and immigration.^[5]

The alt-right has no official ideology, but various sources have said it to be associated with white nationalism,^[6][7][8]white supremacism,^{[2][5][9][10]}antisemitism,^{[2][5][11][8]}right-wing populism,^[6][12]nativism,^[13] and the neoreactionary movement.^[9][14]

The alt-right has been said to be a largely online movement with internet memes widely used to advance or express its beliefs, often on websites such as 4chan.^{[2][9][11][15][16]}

Etymology

In November 2008, Paul Gottfried addressed the H. L. Mencken Club about what he called “the alternative right”.^[17][18] In 2009, two more posts at Taki’s Magazine, by Patrick J. Ford and Jack Hunter, further discussed the alternative right.^[19][20] The term’s modern usage, however, is most commonly attributed to white nationalist and self-described “identitarian“Richard B. Spencer, president of the National Policy Institute and founder of Alternative Right.^[6][21]

Beliefs

The alt-right lacks an official ideology, and has been described as an “amorphous conservative movement”^[22] by Mic, and as “loosely assembled”^[6] by The New Yorker. Various sources have described the alt-right as composed of elements of white nationalism,^[5][7][8]white supremacism^{[2][5][9][10]} and antisemitism.^{[2][5][11][8]} The alt-right has also been linked toright-wing populism,^[6][12]nativism^[13] and the neoreactionary movement.^[1][14][23]

Discussing the origins of Donald Trump‘s support, Jeet Heer of The New Republic identified the alt-right as having ideological origins among paleoconservatives, particularly with respect to restricting immigration and supporting a more openly nationalistic foreign policy.^[24]Newsday columnist Cathy Young also noted the alt-right’s strong opposition to both legal and illegal immigration and its hard-line stance on the European migrant crisis.^[5] Robert Tracinski of The Federalist stated that the alt-right opposes miscegenation and advocates “hard-core” collectivism as well as tribalism.^[25]

Commonalities shared across the otherwise loosely defined alt-right include a disdain for mainstream politics and strong support for Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign.^[3][4]

Use of memes

The alt-right’s use of internet memes to advance or express its beliefs, often on websites such as 4chan, has been widely reported.^{[2][9][11][15][16]} Adherents of the ideology have, for instance, been credited for originating the term cuckservative, a portmanteau of cuckold and conservative.^[1][11][26] Another example is the use of triple parentheses or “echoes” to identify and target Jews online, which originated on the blog The Right Stuff.^{[2][7][11][22]} The prevalence of memes in alt-right circles has led some commentators to question whether the alt-right is a serious movement rather than just an alternative way to express traditionally conservative beliefs.^[6][9][11]

Reaction

Although some conservatives have welcomed the alt-right, others on the mainstream right and left have criticized it as racist or hateful,^[5][27] particularly given the its overt hostility to mainstream conservatism and the Republican Party.^[1]

David A. French, writing for National Review, called alt-right proponents “wanna-be fascists” and bemoaned their entry into the national political conversation.^[28]

Benjamin Welton, writing for The Weekly Standard, described the group as a “highly heterogeneous force” that refuses to “concede the moral high ground to the left.”^[1]

Benjamin Wallace-Wells, writing for The New Yorker, described it as a “loosely assembled far-right movement,” but said that its differences from the conventional right-wing in American politics was more a matter of style than substance: “One way to understand the alt-right is not as a movement but as a collective experiment in identity, in the same way that many people use anonymity on the Internet to test more extreme versions of themselves.”^[6]

Professor George Hawley of the University of Alabama suggested that the alt-right may pose a greater threat to progressivism than the mainstream conservative movement.^[29]

Commentary

In National Review, Ian Tuttle wrote, “The Alt-Right has evangelized over the last several months primarily via a racist and antisemitic online presence. But for Allum Bokhari and Milo Yiannopoulos, the Alt-Right consists of fun-loving provocateurs, valiant defenders of Western civilization, daring intellectuals—and a handful of neo-Nazis keen on a Final Solution 2.0, but there are only a few of them, and nobody likes them anyways.”^[30] Bokhari and Yiannopoulos describe Jared Taylor, founder of American Renaissance, and Richard B. Spencer, founder of Alternative Right, as representative of intellectuals in the alt-right.^[30][31] Cathy Young, writing in The Federalist, stated that the website RadixJournal had replaced the Alternative Right website, and describes aRadixJournal article on abortion that proclaimed that the pro-life position is “‘dysgenic,’ since it encourages breeding by ‘the least intelligent and responsible’ women.”^[32]

Cathy Young, writing in Newsday, called the alt-right “a nest of anti-Semitism” inhabited by “white supremacists” who regularly use “repulsive bigotry”.^[5]Chris Hayes on All In with Chris Hayesdescribed alt-right as a euphemistic term for “essentially modern-day white supremacy.”^[33]BuzzFeed reporter Rosie Gray described the alt-right as “white supremacy perfectly tailored for our times,” saying that it uses “aggressive rhetoric and outright racial and anti-Semitic slurs” and that it has “more in common with European far-right movements than American ones.”^[34] Yishai Schwartz, writing for Haaretz, described the alt-right as “vitriolically anti-Semitic,” saying that “The ‘alternative’ that the alt-right presents is, in large part, an alternative to acceptance of Jews,” and warned that it must be taken seriously as a threat.^[23]

According to the Southern Poverty Law Center, Breitbart News has become a popular outlet for alt-right views.^[35]

See also

• Dark Enlightenment
• New Right

Hillary Clinton Says ‘Radical Fringe’ Is Taking Over G.O.P. Under Donald Trump

Hillary Clinton on Thursday delivered a blistering denunciation of Donald J. Trump, saying he had embraced the “alt-right” political philosophy and presenting his choice as an especially ominous turn in a presidential election full of them.

In her most direct critique yet connecting the Trump campaign to white nationalists and the conservative fringe, Mrs. Clinton is framing Mr. Trump’s run as unprecedented in modern politics.

“He is taking hate groups mainstream and helping a radical fringe take over the Republican Party,” she said.

Asserting that a racially charged and “paranoid fringe” had always existed in politics, she said, “It’s never had the nominee of a major party stoking it, encouraging it and giving it a national megaphone. Until now.”

The speech, at a community college here, comes one week after Mr. Trump named Stephen K. Bannon, the executive chairman of Breitbart News, as his campaign chief. Mr. Bannon has eagerly described the site as “the platform for the alt-right” — a loosely defined and contested term often associated with white nationalist and anti-immigrant sentiment.

So it was that Mrs. Clinton was seeking to describe the “alt-right” to a national audience that might have little familiarity with it.

“The de facto merger between Breitbart and the Trump campaign represents a landmark achievement for the alt-right,” Mrs. Clinton said. “A fringe element has effectively taken over the Republican Party.”

Graphic: In the Race for Registered Voters, Republicans Are Gaining

Mrs. Clinton also noted that David Duke, the former Ku Klux Klan leader, was “jubilant” on his radio show recently while describing Mr. Trump.

“A man with a long history of racial discrimination, who traffics in dark conspiracy theories drawn from the pages of supermarket tabloids and the far dark reaches of the internet, should never run our government or command our military,” Mrs. Clinton said. “If he doesn’t respect all Americans, how can he serve all Americans?”

It was the kind of formal address that Mrs. Clinton had often pursued to communicate her general election message. She also set aside specific events to sternly criticize Mr. Trump’s plans for domestic and foreign policy, and took to the Old State Capitol in Springfield, Ill., last month — the site of Abraham Lincoln’s “house divided” speech — to appeal to the country’s better angels.

For his part, Mr. Trump has often appeared to court the alt-right community — sometimes more winkingly than others — and his elevation of Mr. Bannon heartened many who identified with the movement.

Mrs. Clinton’s remarks also coincide with an attempted shift in strategy from Mr. Trump, who has spoken with more compassion about people in the country illegally and expressed a desire to win African-American support.

These attempts, which have come in front of predominantly white audiences, have more than occasionally offended minority voters. Mr. Trump has said African-Americans live in neighborhoods resembling “war zones,” struggle to get by on food stamps and constantly face down errant gunfire.

“What do you have to lose?” he has asked.

Mrs. Clinton’s team is straining to hold Mr. Trump to his statements from the Republican primary, reminding voters of his hard line on immigration and arguing that his campaign has encouraged hate groups.

On Thursday morning, Mrs. Clinton posted a campaign video on Twitterfeaturing clips of white supremacists praising Mr. Trump. It also included a now-famous interview when Mr. Trump initially declined to disavow Mr. Duke.

Near the end of Mrs. Clinton’s video, these words appear: “If Trump wins, they could be running the country.”

Her campaign has also moved to confront other Republicans with Mr. Trump’s most provocative statements.

John D. Podesta, Mrs. Clinton’s campaign chairman, said that “Republicans up and down the ticket are going to have to choose whether they want to be complicit in this lurch toward extremism, or stand with the voters who can’t stomach it.”

Before the speech on Thursday, Mr. Trump’s campaign suggested that Mrs. Clinton was simply trying to change the subject. “Hillary Clinton’s attempt to delete the single worst week of her political career isn’t going to work,” said Jason Miller, a Trump spokesman, citing controversies over Mrs. Clinton’s private email server and the Clinton Foundation.

At the same time, Mr. Trump’s campaign and Breitbart have reveled recently in conspiracy theories about Mrs. Clinton, suggesting she is in the throes of a health crisis.

In an appearance on Monday on “Jimmy Kimmel Live,” Mrs. Clinton theatrically asked the host to check her pulse and opened a jar of pickles to demonstrate her strength.

“Make sure I’m alive,” she joked.

Story 2: Trump: “Hillary Clinton Is A Bigot” — Hillary Clinton Is A CLIPPER! — Corrupt Lying Incompetent Progressive Politician Eugenics Racist — Videos 

Full Definition of bigot