Donald Trump and the Alt-Right

Rubber Ducky

Sun, Aug 21 2016, 9:10 am

The Donald has a lot of support among the Alt-Right, a movement that has parallels to the far right nationalist parties in Europe and to paleo-conservatives in the USA. The alt-Right has some anti-Semitic overtones, as does the Left. But differently expressed.

See link: https://www.conservativereview.....iends

Comments?

Maya

Sun, Aug 21 2016, 9:18 am

This is nothing new. The only surprising part is why there is even one Jew who supports him.

amother

Azure

Sun, Aug 21 2016, 9:20 am

Maya wrote:

This is nothing new. The only surprising part is why there is even one Jew who supports him.

https://www.youtube.com/embed/U2G9MR1n7Es

Maya

Sun, Aug 21 2016, 9:26 am

The article mentions Milo, who was just exposed as having kept $100,000 of charity money that he raised, for himself. So not exactly upstanding guy either.

DrMom

Sun, Aug 21 2016, 9:36 am

Maya wrote:

This is nothing new. The only surprising part is why there is even one Jew who supports him.

Because the radical "Progressive" Left has taken over the Democratic party and uses it as a vehicle to execute their radical leftist anti-Israel agenda.

By my calculations, they are more of a potent threat these days than the alt-right, who are far more marginalized than the radical Left.

principalk8

Sun, Aug 21 2016, 9:55 am

The Alt-right movement is a white supremacy movement dressed up as a white grievance movement. They're just standing against "white genocide", you see, not advocating white privilege.

They are generally extremely anti-Semitic: Jews, according to their alternate reality , are the ones tricking whites into "globalism" aka "white genocide".

sushilover

Sun, Aug 21 2016, 11:41 am

The alt-right is to conservatives what social justice warriors(regressive left) are to liberals.
They are both motivated by identity politics, annoyingly whiny, neo-facsists , and as a general rule quite young.

Fox

Sun, Aug 21 2016, 7:15 pm

Y'all knew I couldn't pass this one up!

Why the Alt-Right Scares Me Less Than the Left

Let's start with the basic premise that it never ends well when Jews get caught up in an "ism" as the solution to all the world's problems. Socialism, Communism, Liberalism, Conservatism, Progressivism, Zionism, anti-Zionism -- all these may offer solutions to specific problems, but they never live up to the dreams of their proponents.

When all is said and done, political movements are, for the Jew, like rearranging furniture. You can move furniture all you like, but the room won't change size or shape. Ultimately, the Torah and our connection to Hashem is the only "philosophy" that we should whole-heartedly embrace.

But, of course, we live in countries where we must participate in the political process if we want to ensure our continued good treatment. As a recent popular wallpaper said, "Democracy is a political system in which people yell at each other online for six months, and then Florida and Ohio choose the next President."

What Is the "Alt-Right"?
If you think Black Lives Matter is a decentralized, helter-skelter movement, the so-called alt-Right makes BLM look like a well-oiled machine. In fact, a fair amount of alt-Right activity involves people yelling at one another online about whether they are truly alt-Right or really "establishment Right." This yelling peters out about 1 am every night, whereupon everyone calls one another a "cuck" and goes to bed. This is short for "cuckold" and refers to someone who abandons his principles to curry favor with liberals.

If I had to identify an alt-Right "type," I would say a college student or recent college grad; technologically savvy; financially comfortable; libertarian on economic issues; personally tolerant of various lifestyles and religions; vocal supporter of Israel; believer in equity feminism; horrified by the Islamization of Europe.

Popular alt-Right figures are people like Ariana Rowlands, Kassy Dillon, Blaire White.

So Is the Alt-Right Really Anti-Semitic?
There are some very, very bad people who've latched onto the alt-Right bandwagon, and I believe that Milo is 100 percent wrong about the potential impact of trolls. Unfortunately, the alt-Right has talked itself into a corner: the primary cornerstone of alt-Right rhetoric is defense of free speech, even when that speech is obnoxious. Once you've embraced that, it's hard to backtrack and say, "Well, we didn't realize people were going to say something that bad!"

So the primary response of the alt-Right to bigoted speech is to ignore it. The intent is to demean it, to say, "Sure, you can go ahead and say it, but we're not going to dignify it by responding." Unfortunately, it's sometimes unclear whether specific personalities within the alt-Right are ignoring bigotry because it's stupid or ignoring it because they don't care.

If my advice were asked, I would say that voices on the alt-Right need to walk a fine line. Protesting and censoring every anti-Semitic, racist, sexist post or tweet is definitely not the way to go. However, they need to also speak up every so often to disavow those sentiments. Right now, they don't do that often enough.

Alt-Right Anti-Semitism Versus Leftist Anti-Semitism
So why would any Jew feel more comfortable with the alt-Right than the Left?

Because the anti-Semitism of the Left is far more entrenched and pernicious. Anti-Israel sentiment has morphed very quickly into anti-Semitic sentiment, and the Left says nothing. BLM accuses Israel of genocide and no one lets out a peep. Attacks against Jews, both in the US and Europe, are the most rapidly-increasing category of hate crime, but they are rarely carried out by white supremacists; they are typically carried out by Muslims and leftists. President Obama's apparent disregard for the security and role of Israel in the Middle East -- and the fact that virtually no one among the Democrats argued -- not only makes a lot of Jews skittish, but makes a fair number of non-Jews skittish as well.

Andrew Breitbart, a"h, famously said that "politics is downstream from culture." The way to influence society is not through elections, but through impacting the culture around us. Ground Zero of our culture is on college campuses, where the thinking of our best and brightest is molded.

People like me, who've spent much of their lives in higher education settings, are terrified about what is happening: future leaders in the arts, education, business, and politics are being educated in an environment in which casual anti-Semitism is accepted (e.g., claiming that a Jewish student can't serve in student government because of "mixed allegiance") and even venerated as a signal of anti-colonialism.

Yes, there is plenty of vile bigotry attaching itself to the alt-Right, but I can see it. It's not hiding behind student conduct codes. It's not passing itself off as human rights advocacy. It's not pretending to be legitimate criticism of Israeli policy.

So What's All the Drama Over at Breitbart?
The article Rubber Ducky linked to was actually more about Breitbart drama than the alt-Right. If Breitbart and the alt-Right were reality TV, Ben Shapiro would be Ryan Seacrest and Milo Yiannopoulos would be Kim Kardashian.

In other words, Ben Shapiro is the producer -- a brilliant Harvard-educated lawyer who generates content and ideas. He does speak (and was recently banned from DePaul University) but he's very much a legal wonk and sometimes his audiences' eyes glaze over. Milo is the talent -- he has stage presence, a posh accent, and would probably tap dance if you'd just promise to love him.

The honchos at Breitbart -- not being moms -- made the mistake of showing favoritism to one "child" over another. Any random Imamother could have seen this problem coming and told them how to bring out the best in both Milo and Ben without inflicting lasting damage on the "house." Alas, they never ask us, do they?

Breitbart is producing a great deal more revenue these days and I'm not sure they can still make the mincha minyan without Ben Shapiro. I think they should coax Ben back and hire Christina Hoff Sommers away from the American Enterprise Institute. "Based Mom," as she became known as a result of GamerGate, would be responsible for administering the intellectual equivalent of Ritalin to Milo (one of the few who can apparently do so) and could likewise convince Ben that his contributions were really and truly what made the world go 'round.

And if a brawl still broke out, she would be empowered to send everyone to his cubicle.

leah233

Sun, Aug 21 2016, 7:30 pm

The left is much more of a threat to Orthodox Judaism and Jews in general.Spiritually and even physically. Today is the 25th anniversary of the Crown Height pogrom. I can't imagine any American right wing group tolerating a three day pogrom like I remember the ultra left Dinkins administration doing. Not even the ones who border on being openly anti Semitic.

On the other hand I was in rural Pennsylvania today where I picked up a mainstream small town newspaper which had a pro Trump editorial or a letter to the editor saying "Twenty percent of Harvard is Asian and another twenty five percent is Jewish. There is a mandatory fifteen percent minority acceptance rate. What about the rest of us Americans?Don't our children deserve a better future?Who represents us and will give it to them"

The first three sentences made me uneasy. History does not show happy endings after people start saying them.

Fox

Sun, Aug 21 2016, 7:39 pm

leah233 wrote:

On the other hand I was in rural Pennsylvania today where I picked up a mainstream small town newspaper which had a pro Trump editorial or a letter to the editor saying "Twenty percent of Harvard is Asian and another twenty five percent is Jewish. There is a mandatory fifteen percent minority acceptance rate. What about the rest of us Americans?Don't our children deserve a better future?Who represents us and will give it to them"

The first three sentences made me uneasy. History does not show happy endings after people start saying them.

Virtually every alt-Right writer and speaker would respond, "The 'rest of you' need to make sure your kids work hard enough to get grades and SAT scores as good as those earned by Asians and Jews." In fact, the portion of Milo's "Jews run the banks and media" quote from the article is actually part of a conversation in which he says, "So if Jews are disproportionately represented among successful people, why aren't you trying to imitate them?"

The somewhat-aligned Hotep movement in the AA community would say that in all caps.

The problem is not that someone asks this. The problem is that very few people have the guts to answer.

Amarante

Sun, Aug 21 2016, 8:10 pm

How is this even up for discussion? 😱 The altright is a neo nazi movement that believes anyone other than white European or more accurately white Americans is inferior and a danger to US society.

It's disgusting people are parsing language and justifying they might not be as anti Semitic as they appear to be. Whoever is aligned with David Duke is not someone who I want to be aligned with or defend in any way. And who cares what their position is on Jews. Are people so parochial and narrow that they accept hatred for others as acceptable. Jews have always been a beacon of light in fighting for rights of everyone. It's sad if people now feel it is okay to accept a bigoted group so long as they can rationalize they aren't explicitly anti Semitic.

All the semantics and logic and geshrying about the Radical left is hooey and to equate the Democratic Party which is actually center mainstream as radical and equivalent to the altright defies any unbiased examination of actual positions and who supports them.

Brannon's appointment to the Trump campaign is a clear signal to the racists who support him that they can feel comfortable that people holding their twisted hateful beliefs will be in a Trump administration. Breitbart is a sinkhole of crazy and disgusting stories and opinions.

I am not saying every Trump supporter is a racist but that racists and bigots feel comfortable Trump is a candidate who supports their stated goals.

And that Kellyanne Bruja is there to attempt to disguise the real dark side of the campaign by having Trump obfuscate and attempt to walk back from his messages.

Fox

Sun, Aug 21 2016, 9:14 pm

Amarante wrote:

My favorite rhetorical fallacy: stating as facts that which must be proven.

The only sentence even nearing the level of evidence was that concerning David Duke. Yet I could find no evidence that any major figure of the alt-Right had embraced or even regarded David Duke as "pareve." I found a great deal of evidence that David Duke is attempting to attach himself to the alt-Right.

I almost wish I could find the sinkhole of crazy and disgusting stories and opinions you describe. It sounds very exciting! Alas, Breitbart seems to be reporting that CNN committed a racial slur; Clinton's campaign wants Trump to release medical records; mainstream media are not reporting on Clinton's poll numbers; and that a dozen kittens and two puppies have been named after Milo. Okay. I hear your point. It is both crazy and disgusting to name a kitten "Milo."

Fox

Sun, Aug 21 2016, 10:05 pm

Here are some links discussing the good, the bad, and the ugly of the alt-Right. It would be so much easier if people were all good or all evil. Then we could simply love the good ones and hate the evil ones. Unfortunately, it's rarely so simple, especially in culture and politics.

Caution: some stronger language in this one:

bigsis144

Sun, Aug 21 2016, 10:05 pm

Fox wrote:

...

Alas, Breitbart seems to be reporting that CNN committed a racial slur; Clinton's campaign wants Trump to release medical records; mainstream media are not reporting on Clinton's poll numbers; and that a dozen kittens and two puppies have been named after Milo. Okay. I hear your point. It is both crazy and disgusting to name a kitten "Milo."

Excuse me, Fox, but this movie is a classic from my childhood (though apparently behind-the-scenes was very, very lax in the animal ethics department)!

Fox

Sun, Aug 21 2016, 10:08 pm

bigsis144 wrote:

Excuse me, Fox, but this movie is a classic from my childhood (though apparently behind-the-scenes was very, very lax in the animal ethics department)!

So that explains Milo's hair color!

leah233

Mon, Aug 22 2016, 8:29 am

Amarante wrote:

Whoever is aligned with David Duke is not someone who I want to be aligned with or defend in any way

Given a choice between a party where David Duke has influence and is respected (which is no party) and a party where Al Sharpton has influence and is respected(the democratic party) I would go with David Duke as the lesser of two evils

PinkFridge

Mon, Aug 22 2016, 8:36 am

Amarante wrote:

Brannon's appointment to the Trump campaign is a clear signal to the racists who support him that they can feel comfortable that people holding their twisted hateful beliefs will be in a Trump administration. Breitbart is a sinkhole of crazy and disgusting stories and opinions.

.

That first day or two after the Brannon appt. I heard enough to gather that he was Lee Atwater incarnate without the charm. Yet since then Trump's been kindlier and gentler and more on target. (Good boy! Down! [Seriously, even his RW radio supporters commend him for staying on target, like a teacher to a rambunctious student. Rolling Eyes

])
I say this as a Republican who is still not sure what she's doing, but it won't be voting for Hillary.

Amarante

Mon, Aug 22 2016, 11:15 am

PinkFridge wrote:

])
I say this as a Republican who is still not sure what she's doing, but it won't be voting for Hillary.

It's Kellyanne who is reasonable for putting the leash on Trump as she travels with him and whispers in his ear.

Her specialty is making awful Republicans palatable to moderate Repuboican women. She worked for Todd Atkins after his rape is legitimate statement.

She explained that she treats him like her 8 year old daughter and doesn't say no directly but provides him with three choices so he thinks he is in control. According to reports, she flattered and didn't make him feel threatened which is how she pushed out the other pollster Fabrizio who told it in much straighter manner and didn't attempt to sugar coat bad news.

I would rather not have a President who can be manipulated and flattered so easily. For those who think a President can just surround himself with good advisors, at some point it is up to the President to make a difficult decision that is his alone. I would suggest reading on how some notable decisions that could have gone right or wrong were ultimately made by a Presdent who had to weigh all the different alternatives.

Bannon is is out working the altright racist segments so his work will probably not appear in the mainstream press as the Trump campaign works both sides.

Their campaign strategy is contemptuous of people's intelligence IMHO. On the same day, Trump spoke to Hispanic leaders and said he was no longer going to build a wall. Later that day, at a rally he resumed his ravings about deportation and walls and screening based on religion.

And I am not going to restate my position on the altright consisting of neo nazis who should be an abomination to anyone anymore than why Brown v Board of Education was not dissected in my constitutional law class.

sushilover

Mon, Aug 22 2016, 11:47 am

Is Bannon really alt-right himself, or is he just soft on the alt-right?
I think there is a big difference, no?

I also think is there is a difference between someone like David Duke/Al Sharpton supporting a candidate, and a candidate supporting someone like David Dake /Sharpton.

sushilover

Mon, Aug 22 2016, 11:51 am

PinkFridge wrote:

])

I noticed this as well! I have been so impressed with Trump since Brannon. Even Ben Shapiro, who thinks of Brannon as the Devil's spawn, has been lavish in his praise for what he seems to have been doing to benefit the campaign. (Still a bit early to tell for certain, of course)