Elections

What is “alt-Right” in this year’s election ?

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There is a new theme for the Democrats in this year’s election. Hillary calls it the “Alt-Right.”

The New York Times is alarmed.

As Hillary Clinton assailed Donald J. Trump on Thursday for fanning the flames of racism embraced by the “alt-right,” the community of activists that tends to lurk anonymously in the internet’s dark corners could hardly contain its glee.

Mrs. Clinton’s speech was intended to link Mr. Trump to a fringe ideology of conspiracies and hate, but for the leaders of the alt-right, the attention from the Democratic presidential nominee was a moment in the political spotlight that offered a new level of credibility. It also provided a valuable opportunity for fund-raising and recruiting.

Jared Taylor, editor of the white nationalist publication American Renaissance, live-tweeted Mrs. Clinton’s remarks, questioning her praise of establishment Republicans and eagerly anticipating her discussion of his community.

According to Hillary and the Times, Donald Trump is defined by those who say they support him more than by what he says himself.

If Hillary and Bernie Sanders are supported by communists, does that make them communists ? This is an odd year and will get worse.

A better explanation of “alt-Right” is provided by two spokesmen for another view.

A specter is haunting the dinner parties, fundraisers and think-tanks of the Establishment: the specter of the “alternative right.” Young, creative and eager to commit secular heresies, they have become public enemy number one to beltway conservatives — more hated, even, than Democrats or loopy progressives.
The alternative right, more commonly known as the alt-right, is an amorphous movement. Some — mostly Establishment types — insist it’s little more than a vehicle for the worst dregs of human society: anti-Semites, white supremacists, and other members of the Stormfront set. They’re wrong.

I wasn’t even aware of this controversy until Ann Althouse put up a post on the subject after Hillary raised it.

She quotes a man who was ejected from the Hillary speech.

“I call myself alt right because the conservative establishment right in this country does not represent my views, they are just as much to blame for the disaster taking place in America as the left, the alt right to me is fiscal responsibility, secure borders, enforcement of immigration laws, ending the PC culture, and promoting AMERICA FIRST (Not Sharia First)… If you come to this country legally, follow the laws, learn our language, and love the country, you are equal, no matter your color, or religion. Basically alt-right is to separate ourselves from the failing establishment right.“

That post led to over 300 comments on her blog. She then posted a survey. The results were interesting.

alt-right poll

I voted for the choice “I’m most of all of what it stands for but I don’t use that term, myself.”

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The United States of Weimar? -continued-

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In Minneapolis, attendees at a Trump rally were attacked by a mob.  Police were present, but no arrests were made.

There have been similar incidents at other Trump rallies; see for example  this story from San Jose.

Meanwhile, establishment journalists and academics wring their hands about how dangerous Trump is, while mostly ignoring the danger to the democratic process driven by the destructive behavior of  ‘progressive’ thugs…often enabled by winks and nods from ‘liberal’ government officials, who are all too happy to let them get away with it.

Too much more of this, and I may have to remove the question mark from the line:  The United States of Weimar?

Has Hillary Clinton Gone Full Cat-Lady?

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Hillary Clinton is famous for the term “Vast Right-Wing Conspiracy” to “otherize” the conservative movement.

Yesterday she came out with the “Vast Right-Wing Conspiracy 2.0” — The Vast Vladimir Putin-led “Great Extreme Nationalist Conspiracy.”

Pardon me but...What the H*ll?!?

As Sundance over at The Last Refuge put it:

Secretary Hillary Clinton, campaigning to become President of the United States, actually gave a public speech claiming that Vladimir Putin was using mind-control to manipulate nationalist inhabitants of planet earth in a grand conspiracy against her campaign.

And if you don’t believe her, YOU are the conspiracy theorist.

Think about that for a few minutes.

Folks like Alex Jones at Infowars and Milo Yiannopoulos at Breitbart are delighted.   Hillary rewarded their troll-ish behavior with more eyes than they ever could have gotten themselves.

The first rule of the Internet is Do Not Feed the Energy Creatures.   It lets folks like Joseph Watson at Infowars post videos like this —

There is one more person that is thanking the All Mighty for Hillary’s speech…Donald Trump.

While Hillary’s campaign staff may have panned the speech as a way to duck a debate with Trump by painting him as “an extremist,”   it feeds the revived and remade by the Alt-Right   meme of the CRAZY CAT LADY.

The old  CRAZY CAT LADY meme involved near senile old hags scaring small children at the edge of their picket fences.   This one has been around since Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn.

The Alt-Right CRAZY CAT LADY meme — which is borrowed from the pickup-artist/seduction   community — reshapes the old-hag meme to apply to college-graduate career women who have spend all their prime attractive years from 18 to 36 taking birth control and chasing bad-boy cads while leaving good but boring men behind.   Then discovering as they approach their ’40s there is no one out there for them to marry and settle down with, save for their cats.

Part and parcel   of that Alt-Right CRAZY CAT LADY meme is advertising scientific studies about the fact that hormonal birth control makes women act and smell different — act less sexy — during the most fertile days of their monthly cycle.

Making this study popular study is a huge indictment of feminism in general and first-generation feminists in particular.   It is intended as such.   Such offensive but hard-truth lines are intended as an opening move of a seduction routine for career women on the “cat lady track”.

That Hillary as a “first generation feminist” is parroted by Milo Yiannopoulos in a Presidential-candidate address citing that birth-control study shows that the Alt-Right is living in Hillary’s head rent-free.

It was Hillary’s Megyn Kelly moment.

That Trump, who Hillary accuses of being Alt-Right, recognizes that point goes without saying.

Trump is going to use this “Hillary the CRAZY CAT LADY” meme for all that is worth between now and election day.

What Works and What Doesn’t, Again: A Blush-Pink Frock

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Ivanka Trump, mother of three and stunning in a sheath, introduced her father at the Republican Convention. Many argue his kids seem great certainly they appear loyal, attractive, alert, and sensible. But be that as it may. Both Adams and Franklin disowned sons. For most of us, raising children will be our most consequential task and Trump seems to be doing reasonably well. But it’s a thin reed.

Still, that dress! It represents what moved country after country out of poverty. Causes of that respect across class lines and the rise of a large middle class and greater health for all are complicated: some see the Bible in the vernacular, some see the marriage of the Great Awakening with the Enlightenment, Dutch and English traditions, sea routes. Surely living longer and with more health meant more productivity. Others rightly prize a concept motivating these views, that each has within the divine. Such a belief emphasizes human rights the free market of commerce, of ideas, of innovations, of speech, of religion. Honoring the dignity and virtuous habits of the bourgeoisie led to a respect for everyman and everyman’s talents. It was huge, that change from 1700 to 2100. And a signifier is a presidential hopeful in the most powerful nation introduced by his daughter in that blush pink dress.

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An Important Point About the Election

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Daniel Henninger, writing in the Wall Street Journal, points out one consequence of a Hillary Clinton presidency: the continuation and acceleration of the trends that are destroying American higher education.

One mechanism of destruction is the use of federal enforcement agencies to further entrench political correctness. Expect a lot more Star Chamber proceedings and witch-burnings. Another mechanism is increased federal dollars pipelined into the education industry, eliminating any incentives for reform.

 

(also posted it the members’ section at Ricochet)