Alt-Right and the Conservative Populist Movement today.

“The Bible tells us to love our neighbors, and also to love our enemies; probably because generally they are the same people.”
― G.K. Chesterton

The goal of this essay is to introduce you to the Alt-Right and the Conservative Populist Movement that is behind Trump's victory, and in particular, I am going to introduce you to one of their most prominent, (well, certainly their most flamboyant) spokesman -- Milo Yiannopoulos:

STL-MILO-QUOTE-01.jpg

...and I am going to introduce you to sundance's blog -- the premier conservative blog today (ie: their Markos/DailyKos):

After being betrayed by Comey and Obama and Bernie, I resigned myself to learn about Trump and the conservative populist movement behind him. I put aside my preconceived notions and with a Buddhist "child's mind" / "empty cup" ... I listened. This essay is the result of the learning journey I have taken over the past 4 months.

I am including four or five videos of Milo. If you want to know why Trump won. You should watch Milo and you should read CTH. You will learn something about the conservative populist movement and you will probably also learn something about the neo-liberal movement that has infected DailyKos (infected probably from its inception). I have found that Milo understands us Berners better then we understand our own selves, and I have found CTH to be refreshingly warm, friendly, respectful and honest. It has been a rather cathartic experience for me.

The enemy of our enemy is, I believe, our friend.

STL-MILO-QUOTE-02.jpg

Milo is rather amusing and extremely entertaining, and very intelligent and very well informed. He is irreverent and mischievous. He is a gay jew from England, as will be abundantly clear, who is a writer for Breitbart and an ardent Trump supporter, whom he affectionately calls "Daddy." Milo has been touring college campuses speaking to young conservatives for several years: THE DANGEROUS FAGGOT TOUR.

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Milo rather embodies the heart and soul of the irreverent alt-right culture. So, if you want to know them first-hand. Watch these videos.

Milo is one of the two writers who wrote the following excerpt and linked article about the Alt-Right. You should read the entire article because it is rather informative, but this excerpt will give you a good introduction -- the first 3 paragraphs:

An Establishment Conservative’s Guide To The Alt-Right
by ALLUM BOKHARI & MILO YIANNOPOULOS

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.

Previously an obscure subculture, the alt-right burst onto the national political scene in 2015. Although initially small in number, the alt-right has a youthful energy and jarring, taboo-defying rhetoric that have boosted its membership and made it impossible to ignore.

  • Milo Yiannopoulos: What The ‘Alt-Right’ Is Really About
    (Full Interview) | Power Lunch | CNBC

[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lgl53EXInPc]

Liberalism requires having an open mind and open ear. After spending the last 4 months listening to dozens of Trump's speeches and reading Breitbart News daily, and reading the premier conservative blog --- The Conservative Treehouse --- daily, and listening to a number of Alex Jones' InfoWars videos (Yes, Alex Jones/InfoWars --- please, no gaslighting) I have found that they have much more in common with our liberal ideals than DailyKos does, or maybe EVER did. For starters, they are an honest respectful fact-based community. They are NOT prejudiced. DailyKos is prejudiced. Neo-Liberals are prejudiced.

Conservative Populist are not prejudiced. They are not abusive. They are, however, irreverent, do not confuse the two.

If you wish to know what the Alt-Right Conservative Populist Movement is about, then stop demonizing them, stop smearing them, stop slandering them. Stop passing superficial uninformed judgment and take the time to listen. Yes, they will poke fun, at times, because they are irreverent and like to push buttons to see what you are about. They are human. Take the time to engage with their intelligentsia in a respectful discussion, interact with them, ask them questions, present your ideas and your concerns and your fears, and be prepared to back up your ideas with facts and references.

This is where you will find their intelligentsia:
The Conservative Treehouse

It is NOT 4chan. Nothing like 4chan. Swearing is not allowed. It is moderated. Treat them with respect and they will treat you with respect. It is a very well read blog, and they DO have the ear of the POTUS-ELECT, Mr. Trump. So, if you want your ideas heard by the next Administration, you would do well to put your anger and bitterness and ego and self-righteous attitude aside and communicate. They are a very informed and well spoken group. They are NOTHING like DailyKos today. DailyKos is prejudiced and hypocritical and hateful and abusive and disrespectful and close-minded, as are virtually every Hillary supporter I have interacted with during this entire election season --- this Neo-Liberal community --- the Faux-Liberal. DailyKos has made "gaslighting" a norm and acceptable. It is not. Gaslighting is abuse. Please do not gaslight here. Please do not gaslight ANYWHERE. Conspiracy theory is only theory until it is proven, and then it is Conspiracy FACT. And as we saw from WikiLeaks, there was a conspiracy.

Here is another (longer) video of Milo:

  • MILO Receives Annie Taylor Award For Courage at David Horowitz Restoration Weekend

[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VyH789neAgI]

And if you want to understand the Alt-RIght's sensibility, do take the time to watch this video too:

  • BBC Tries to Ambush Milo...With Exactly The Result You'd Expect

[video:https://youtu.be/Q3K1pGN-O8I]

And if you really want to take the time to patiently listen to Milo's perspective on Conservatism and Liberalism, I strongly recommend y

  • Milo Yiannopoulos and Dave Rubin Talk Donald Trump, Censorship, and Free Speech (Full Interview)

[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DiA0P9iELAA]


“I never did give them hell. I just told the truth, and they thought it was hell.”
― Harry Truman
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To your videos. Maybe later, maybe not. I don't need a daddy, and I found that off putting.

Since you supplied few facts on the words of the "gay faggot" himself, , the only thing I can evaluate is your message. Some times a mind can be so open the wind blows right through it. You sound like you were bainwashed and joined a cult. No offense meant.

Jane Hampsher said years ago that the right and left had common ground and needed to join forces on that common ground to take the establishment down. She was right of course, and ToP stoned her for it of course. It sounds as if you used that common ground to make a pact with "the Family". All you have to do is tithe them everything you own.

The alt-right is just people, not the stone tablet from the mountain top. So far their people are so ugly it obscures any message of unity and charity they may be sending.

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"Religion is what keeps the poor from murdering the rich."--Napoleon

Phoebe Loosinhouse's picture

She was driven off the Democratic compound when she signed a petition along with, among others, Grover Norquist. For this she was vilified, had her epaulets cut off and marched outside the fort, never to be spoken of again, at least on places like TOP. What was the petition that she signed about? It was a request for the Board of Freddie Mac to be investigated which involved Rahm Emanual.

This is a fascinating look back at the controversy as documented by no less than Cenk Uygur on Daily Kos and it specifically discusses the necessity of left right alliances when the goal benefits everyone outside of ideology. It addresses the hypocrisy of giving your own side a pass for something you would excoriate the other side for. This same dynamic was at work again, IMO, when Democrats found themselves unable to address the issue of Hillary's emails in the same manner they would have had it been a Republican Secretary of State running for President.

Cenk Uygur: "Jane Hamsher & Grover Norquist Are Right"

I do think there is a Venn diagram of overlapping and shared issues between the left and the right which encompasses Medicare and Social Security, election integrity, the Rule of Law and an impartial DOJ which investigates without prejudice or favor, integrity of elected officials in general, and money in politics, among other things.

I have found myself reading conservative sources more than I have in my entire life in that last election because they were the only ones covering HRC's server and related issues on a regular basis - The National Review, Fox News, and the Daily Caller. I have some newfound respect for some of their writers and reporters on that specific topic.

But, I have no motivation or intention to drop my lifelong progressive, altruistic, outlook in favor of conservatism which always seems to me to operate under the guiding principle of Zero Sum - more for you means less for me, which I do not believe in or adhere to. I think the underlying philosophy of conservatism is Scarcity and determining how resources are allocated to the most "deserving". That's why there's always this running stream of intolerance for the other, the poor, the ill, etc. - a Social Darwinism perspective of the poor deserve to be poor, the ill deserve to die, the hungry deserve to starve, etc. Progressivism on the other hand to me operates under a guiding principle of Abundance - we have the resources to clothe the naked, treat the ill, feed the hungry, educate the illiterate, etc. and improve not only their individual situations, but the world around us in general.

Conservatives could make more inroads among the general public in their proselytizing if they could train themselves to not use hate language epithets scattered across racial, ethnic, gender and religious boundaries and stop using perjoratives like "libtards".

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" “Human kindness has never weakened the stamina or softened the fiber of a free people. A nation does not have to be cruel to be tough.” FDR "

They also drove Sirota and Cenk into exile for not kissing the ring.

The difference between conservative and progressive outlooks is as you describe, and I have no desire to cross over either. The ability of conservatives to cut off their noses to spite faces stuns me. It took all I had to not vote for Hillary because omg Trump, but for the sake of the greater good, I felt I just had to muster up the same willingness to gnaw off my arm that conservatives seem to relish.

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"Religion is what keeps the poor from murdering the rich."--Napoleon

Phoebe Loosinhouse's picture

in viewpoint/ideology, as in 'if it's bad when a Republican does it, it's still bad when a Democrat does it'.

I share that trait and I just can't deal with the cognitive dissonance that is required to be a Democrat or to post at TOP since they have proven to be masters of the situational ethics game.

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" “Human kindness has never weakened the stamina or softened the fiber of a free people. A nation does not have to be cruel to be tough.” FDR "

Pluto's Republic's picture

I was reminded of a moment in the election cycle, around the beginning of the Republican debates.

Bernie Sanders wrote a letter or plea stating that his supporters and Donald's supporters had a great deal in common; that they were of like mind in many ways. He implied that he and Trump were both outsider candidates with parallel challenged. He told Trump supporters that they may get turned off by all the angry rhetoric coming from Trump and the Republicans, and invited them to join his campaign if they did, where they would surely be more comfortable. He also encouraged his supporters to welcome them.

Later that might I spoke to a good friend in New York, a politician of sorts. He became absolutely apopletic that I suggested such an evil overlap. I pointed out that Bernie suggested it, not me, but he was so distressed and offended he could not parse my words. He is a very level-headed guy, always. I never mentioned it again. And neither did Bernie.

I put a Don and Bernie folder on my desktop, however, which I found useful at times.

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____________________

The political system is what it is because the People are who they are. — Plato

condemnations if you won't even listen to what they say?
I found the videos very interesting.

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chuck utzman

TULSI 2020

condemnations if you won't even listen to what they say?
I found the videos very interesting.

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chuck utzman

TULSI 2020

You sound like you were bainwashed and joined a cult. No offense meant.

Hmm. Cultists. Aren't they the ones that usually insulate themselves from outside voices?

The center is collapsing everywhere under the weight of the albatross of globalization. Young people will fall either to the right or to the left. Many people posting on looser alt right forums, like The Donald, originally supported Bernie. Many would still listen to that kind of call. But not if they're called cult members first.

There's a lot of discussion now on the left about how toxic identity politics is. That's all great, but in reality, the urge to virtue-signal remains too strong for some to resist. It's time to face reality. The establishment is not going to be defeated by a coalition of the left and...the establishment.

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Sorry. I got through the first section (The Intellectuals) of Milo's essay and, besides dripping with superiority, only saw racism and sexism re-packaged like a college student who uses big words to make themselves seem smarter than they actually are. Milo, himself, reminds me of William F. Buckley. Yes, he's smart, witty, and charming, but he's still selling snake oil.

Political correctness has gone too far, but the answer is NOT to do away with it completely.

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Oldest Son Of A Sailor's picture

Sorry but it is what it is...
Whacko crap...

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"Do you realize the responsibility I carry?
I'm the only person standing between Richard Nixon and the White House."

~John F. Kennedy~
Economic: -9.13, Social: -7.28,
k9disc's picture

You can't un-see or un-hear things. Take a bunch of correlated stimulus in, and you are changed by it, quite literally your brain changes.

I have a book here that I really want to read because I think it's an argument for a benevolent corporate fascism as a replacement for the "failed experiment of democracy".

I can't read it though. To read it is to be AFFECTed by it. I can't unread those things.

You know why the Right doesn't read Marx? Because it will AFFECT them; it will change their brains, especially if it makes sense.

I read the first few pages of the book, and while it was neoliberal claptrap, it was good neoliberal claptrap. I bought assumptions, right off the bat, that I could not or would not normally buy. To read the whole book would be a mind altering experience.

In the past I used to watch cable TV "News" to see what the movers and shakers were up to. Of course I was unaffected by it, my socialist leanings were far too strong to be swayed by corporate news. The fact of the matter is that it AFFECTed me without my knowledge.

It wasn't until I turned it off that I realized how much just hearing it AFFECTed me. My thoughts and focus were completely different after a year without Tweety. Now when watching that shit I can clearly see the hyper-manipulation and can see why and how people are so poorly informed. I was just like that.

AFFECT is key. You can't un-see shit. Activation of different parts of the brain through the simple input of stimulus changes you, changes your brain.

I deal with this through discussion and excerpting of larger pieces.

Here's an absolutely fascinating lecture by Jaak:
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qf4ZFwyVJ2A]

Good luck sense.

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“Tactics without strategy is the noise before defeat.” ~ Sun Tzu

According to Snopes, Fake News Is Not the Problem
Take it from the internet’s chief myth busters: The problem is the failing media.

https://backchannel.com/according-to-snopes-fake-news-is-not-the-problem...

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"Religion is what keeps the poor from murdering the rich."--Napoleon

k9disc's picture

But when reading the excerpts, it reinforced my idea that Snopes is truth like Hillary speaks the truth. If you parse it down far enough, it's truth, but if you take a nuanced look at truth which requires context and not a simple yes or no answer, Snopes fails, IMO. They are truthy.

For instance:

The problem, Binkowski believes, is that the public has lost faith in the media broadly — therefore no media outlet is considered credible any longer. The reasons are familiar: as the business of news has grown tougher, many outlets have been stripped of the resources they need for journalists to do their jobs correctly. “When you’re on your fifth story of the day and there’s no editor because the editor’s been fired and there’s no fact checker so you have to Google it yourself and you don’t have access to any academic journals or anything like that, you will screw stories up,” she says.

That is not the problem. The problem is that the corporate media creates propaganda to train the viewers into a corporate friendly stance. She's suffering under the same delusions that most Americans suffer under: that the corporate media intends to honestly inform the electorate, and that the viewer or reader is the corporate media's customer. Both are complete falsehoods.

So while we get a good, truthful answer,"Corporate media has lost the trust of viewers," we get a terribly misleading representation of the context that surrounds the answer. "It's hard work to get a story right. Reporters and editors are suffering under deadlines and doing their best. It's better than an amateur can do on his or her own."

That's truthiness, and it's a real problem with Snopes and "fact checkers".

So, while I'm surprised that Snopes made the call, I am not surprised that they misrepresented the context.

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“Tactics without strategy is the noise before defeat.” ~ Sun Tzu

Pluto's Republic's picture

...covering Donald Trump's rallies and parsing what he was saying. I did that up to the convention, which I ignored because I had other things to do. During that time, I also visited a few sites and places where Trump supporters gathered to answer questions posed by anyone curious who dropped by. Looking back, I don't recall seeing fights break out, as one might expect. I didn't participate, but I saw that they were pretty ordinary, reflective even. There wasn't a doctrine or memorized talking points. They talked from the context of their own lives, adversities, and hopes. Their political priorities were mostly economic, for themselves, not macroeconomics. Line items like the environment or antiwar were not among their top priorities, but neither were anti-immigration and hating on women. They definitely were all about their country, the US. They touched on a new kind of liberty that wasn't libertarian. More on that another time.

I didn't really click with them fully because I'm on a post-national track and I can't quite wrap my mind around nationalism. To the extent that restricted trade policies and immigration limits come into play, I can only look at the only true shepherds of this continent, who are now protecting the pristine nature of the land at Standing Rock, located in their concentration camp in North Dakota. I wonder what their feelings are on endless immigration of foreign cultures, given their experiences. Native Americans are very much nationalists, since they evolved physically and racially on this land for tens of thousands of years, just as people with white skin evolved on the European continent, where they are indigenous.

But I drift. Suffice to say I don't have a position. I did write many essays and reports during my research on Trump's campaign. I regard them as benign and philosophical, but I would never dare publish them here, in the headwinds of the massive propaganda blast of hate and fear unleashed on the American people by their Neocon and Neoliberal overlords, in their mad and murderous quest for personal wealth, resource control, and Empire.

Oh yes, the point of all this is that I didn't track down the "Alt-Right" scene. This is my most direct encounter with it. I watched the first video from CNBC you posted. I found the news team to be hideous and repulsive, with such ugly expressions on their faces. Milo not so much. I enjoyed the encounter, but mostly I'm relieved that my instincts have some confirmation. In fact, my only strong prejudice comes from the word "Breitbart." Breitbart shat down the neck of the US body politic relentlessly, at a vulnerable time, and poisoned it with their lying venom. Their "freedom of the press" did grave, generational damage to American society. I know. I was there.

Thanks for the links and carry on.

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____________________

The political system is what it is because the People are who they are. — Plato

k9disc's warning is a valid one, but I think it's possible to read, maybe even watch some of this stuff without getting brainwashed.

I read Bannon's Q&A before some right-wing gathering at the Vatican and came away with two impressions:

1) He is legitimately anti-elite.

2) He either knows nothing about American history or is willfully blind to facts. His whole schtick about Capitalists guided by "Judeo-Christian" ethics in the late 19th century is hiliarious. Maybe this was cooked up for this particular audience, but Rockefeller and J. P. Morgan are pretty much the definition of Mammon. Bannon has apparently never been to Rockefeller Chapel at the University of Chicago. There's not a cross or Star of David in the place. It's styled as a monument to humanism, but it's more accurately dedicated to Rockefeller personally, his money and Capitalism.

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When climate change becomes really scary to the people on the alt-right, the propaganda will stop.

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Beware the bullshit factories.

detroitmechworks's picture

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I do not pretend I know what I do not know.

Song of the lark's picture

Meanwhile my only observation is that we ( on this blog) and as a nation are in quite a fix. Clarity of intention, centering, and right action can guide us.

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sojourns's picture

Propaganda Alert! I wonder who's signs the flamboyant one's paycheck? Is this an effort by alt + right to demonstrate inclusiveness? I'll believe that when the president of Breitbart has a Jewish mother and a Muslim father or visa versa.

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"I can't understand why people are frightened of new ideas. I'm frightened of the old ones."
John Cage