Read on Twitter
i have a lot of thoughts on this alt-right phase discourse which i’ve voiced on my priv and it’s a very difficult topic for me but bear with me because i’m going to have a go at putting them here:
i think we have to grapple with the fact that the alt-right deliberately target vulnerable men who are at risk of not meeting some sort of expectation of them (whether that’s masculinity, success, appearance etc etc) and give them an outlet to blame that essentially predominantly
on jews and women. like we have to face the fact that they are a radicalising movement (albeit a very broad and nebulous one) looking to recruit and manipulate in the way that we would consider any other hard right radical/terrorist/nazi organisation and people will fall for it,
especially if they are being deliberately targeted! the way the alt-right speaks attracts a very specific type of person - someone who is dissatisfied, who feels like a failure, who is vulnerable. i speak very much from experience since i was very close to one of these people
when i was younger. they are neurodivergent + mentally ill and felt inadequate and the alt-right, with all their little affiliates incl. those who have a sort of plausible deniability because they straddle the line between the mainstream and the right like jordan peterson to the
actual nazis like richard spencer, make it easier for them to deal with that feeling of inadequacy. it’s easier for them to read nietzsche (not that nietzsche himself is alt-right but he certainly has been reappropriated and is popular with them) or 12 rules for life to make
themselves feel as if they are in control of any “degeneracy” in their character which can simply be overcome if they reassert themselves over anyone “weaker” than them. and it’s easier for them to think that anything out of their control is because of women or jews or POC
in general (they didn’t explicitly say it but it was often heavily implied). it’s a coward’s way of thinking and a coward’s way out and they hurt and traumatised me immeasurably because i was a very young girl and also jewish
but that is why imo, even though i was hurt by them and people like them and i’m not obligated to fully trust anyone like that, we on the left need to start wising up to deradicalisation strategies and ways to reach some of these people on social media. they’re not all too far
gone, as the recent thread on this by the former alt-right person has proven. for every person we shut out or close off to the prospect of kinder politics and justice there are five more who will gladly explain the significance of 13/52 or why the (((globalists))) need wiping out
of course this isn’t to say that neurodivergent and mentally ill men especially are gullible or to infantilise them and say it’s an excuse for their behaviour, far from it. it’s that the alt-right are so despicable that they deliberately exploit these aspects to radicalise people
it’s an easy way in when the rest of the world already makes neurodivergent and mentally ill people feel disillusioned or ostracised. like i said, it’s cowardly and a coward’s recruitment tactic, but the problem is no one can see it once they’re on that pipeline
i totally understand and empathise with people who don’t want anything to do with former alt-right turned-leftists and having had this experience it makes me very uncomfortable personally but the left in general needs to start contemplating deradicalisation and media
messaging. bc if you found yourself getting drawn into a cult, and you couldn’t get out of it for a long time, you probably would not be drawn towards a different group of people who expect infinite self-flagellation for your former sins even if they’re the ones who saved you
from going down an even darker path. the alt-right already seeks out to gather those who feel rejected, and while you’re not obligated to make them part of your own community if they have caused harm, treating them as if they are irredeemable further solidifies that feeling
of resentment and defiance to left politics that they see as some (((new world order))) that is specifically out to persecute THEM. i’m the first to allow no shit from men like this but we’re at crisis point, the left are not winning and we need to discuss strategy urgently
one last thing. people are not radicalised in a vacuum. fascism is not an anomaly and is in fact a pretty natural next step to the unbridled neoliberalism we’re living through. are we really under the illusion that we don’t have people in our movements who harm, who essentially
exhibit v similar harmful behaviour except couched in the language of social justice and the guise of performing left politics? acting as if having an “alt-right phase” when you’re younger is normal is massively trivialising and downplays the trauma it causes, but it’s also not
rare and not anomalous by any means. treating fascism as if it’s an anomaly and not very much a key product or even driving force of the capitalist west is dangerous and absolves the harm people cause outside of explicitly fascist contexts yet who still exhibit key features of
it that pose harm to people (antisemitsm, misogyny, racism). but that’s all i have to say on that. i’ll probably delete this thread soon because it feels too personal and took a lot to post but it’s my experience and i learnt a lot from it
