This review is a good antidote to some nonsense out there about what happened. I remember those exhilarating times of 2015-2016. I had gotten fed up with the useless, traitorous GOP a few years earlier. And it became obvious that the only hope of stopping the gradual white genocide was for whites to begin their own identity politics. What attracted me to the Alt-Right was that "new synthesis" which you described, and the "big tent" which allowed for debate. Trump was an exciting new alternative, as Ron Paul had been in a different way earlier. But as suggested here, Trump was riding a wave. Many of us knew his flaws, but we also knew the real opportunities he provided, and in some cases fulfilled. Maybe there's some truth in both the "great man" and the "social forces" schools of history. While Trump played a useful role, he fell short of being the great man who we needed, to get us over the finish line. But that national populist force is still strong, I think.
"...First, the Alt Right was working beautifully as a metapolitical movement. But some people tried to turn it into a political movement. This led to disasters like Charlottesville. Second, the drive to turn the Alt Right into a political movement came largely from people who wanted to resurrect National Socialism..."
This is true, and something to keep in mind. In the Alt-Right days, some of us were rightly concerned about hearing echoes of jackboots from some quarters. This doesn't mean we should follow the lead of characters like James Lindsay who make accusations about the "Woke Right." But to paraphrase John Lennon, if you go carrying volumes of Mein Kampf, you ain't gonna make it with a lot of Americans, or western Europeans. And if it's totalitarianism, you can count me out.
Thanks for this well-balanced review, Greg. Brings back lots of memories.
You quote (approvingly, I think): “The Right today bears little resemblance to what I first encountered in 2013, in large part due to the triumph of the pseudonymous world (where I worked in secret) over the established institutions (where I was building my career)” (p. 8).
I'm surprised to see this. From the left, it looks like the right went from tax cuts for the rich and war for Israel in the early 2000s, through a weird detour when Obama was in power and there were some possibilities of something different, and now they're back where they started, just with some spicy rhetoric to excite a part of its online base. Even on immigration, there's been a big show, but no e-verify. Some (including a few mentioned in the article) flipped on Trump after the "gas-killing animal" bombing of Syria in April 2017 and concluded that nothing had really changed. Haven't they been vindicated?
In terms of foreign policy I think it's largely the same for the Middle East, however Trump wants to scale down the empire and focus on hemispheric defense. Trump is still indebted to the Jewish lobby, and so we get their wars, however this time a number of billionaire Jews have left the left after getting "mugged by reality", Bill Ackman being one. This has taken their foot off of the right's necks a bit as they focus on combatting the "Islamo-left".
Nathan Cofnas wrote an article recently on the shift of Jews to the right, pointing out that non religious ones intermix and have low fertility while the more hardcore Jews are quite racialist. Perhaps it's overstated I don't know. I'd say the right has won the meme war and the culture war but the left still holds the institutions, and the loss of trust in them is permanent, each time they make a post online a trebuchet of insults gets hurled at them for poor headlines or lies by omission.
Trump has went after antifa more this term and we've regained some internet freedom after the 2017 freeze. Breadtube trooned out. Neocon shills like Ben Shapiro are losing subscribers and Daily Wire itself is going down. Steven Crowder has take a more hardline racialist stance compared to what he used to believe. Talk of anti-white policies are everywhere online.
This review is a good antidote to some nonsense out there about what happened. I remember those exhilarating times of 2015-2016. I had gotten fed up with the useless, traitorous GOP a few years earlier. And it became obvious that the only hope of stopping the gradual white genocide was for whites to begin their own identity politics. What attracted me to the Alt-Right was that "new synthesis" which you described, and the "big tent" which allowed for debate. Trump was an exciting new alternative, as Ron Paul had been in a different way earlier. But as suggested here, Trump was riding a wave. Many of us knew his flaws, but we also knew the real opportunities he provided, and in some cases fulfilled. Maybe there's some truth in both the "great man" and the "social forces" schools of history. While Trump played a useful role, he fell short of being the great man who we needed, to get us over the finish line. But that national populist force is still strong, I think.
"...First, the Alt Right was working beautifully as a metapolitical movement. But some people tried to turn it into a political movement. This led to disasters like Charlottesville. Second, the drive to turn the Alt Right into a political movement came largely from people who wanted to resurrect National Socialism..."
This is true, and something to keep in mind. In the Alt-Right days, some of us were rightly concerned about hearing echoes of jackboots from some quarters. This doesn't mean we should follow the lead of characters like James Lindsay who make accusations about the "Woke Right." But to paraphrase John Lennon, if you go carrying volumes of Mein Kampf, you ain't gonna make it with a lot of Americans, or western Europeans. And if it's totalitarianism, you can count me out.
Thanks for this well-balanced review, Greg. Brings back lots of memories.
Been looking forward to this book, thanks for sharing!
You quote (approvingly, I think): “The Right today bears little resemblance to what I first encountered in 2013, in large part due to the triumph of the pseudonymous world (where I worked in secret) over the established institutions (where I was building my career)” (p. 8).
I'm surprised to see this. From the left, it looks like the right went from tax cuts for the rich and war for Israel in the early 2000s, through a weird detour when Obama was in power and there were some possibilities of something different, and now they're back where they started, just with some spicy rhetoric to excite a part of its online base. Even on immigration, there's been a big show, but no e-verify. Some (including a few mentioned in the article) flipped on Trump after the "gas-killing animal" bombing of Syria in April 2017 and concluded that nothing had really changed. Haven't they been vindicated?
In terms of foreign policy I think it's largely the same for the Middle East, however Trump wants to scale down the empire and focus on hemispheric defense. Trump is still indebted to the Jewish lobby, and so we get their wars, however this time a number of billionaire Jews have left the left after getting "mugged by reality", Bill Ackman being one. This has taken their foot off of the right's necks a bit as they focus on combatting the "Islamo-left".
Nathan Cofnas wrote an article recently on the shift of Jews to the right, pointing out that non religious ones intermix and have low fertility while the more hardcore Jews are quite racialist. Perhaps it's overstated I don't know. I'd say the right has won the meme war and the culture war but the left still holds the institutions, and the loss of trust in them is permanent, each time they make a post online a trebuchet of insults gets hurled at them for poor headlines or lies by omission.
Trump has went after antifa more this term and we've regained some internet freedom after the 2017 freeze. Breadtube trooned out. Neocon shills like Ben Shapiro are losing subscribers and Daily Wire itself is going down. Steven Crowder has take a more hardline racialist stance compared to what he used to believe. Talk of anti-white policies are everywhere online.
Ackman and friends taking their foot off of the right’s neck while they combat the “Islamo-left” should be a cause for reflection.