Your Journey to the Alt-Right.

[luka]

Groupname for Grapejuice

groupnameforgrapejuice.blogspot.com

Things have become so inverted, so convoluted, that the far right, in troll/hipster drag and rebranded as the alt-right/alt-lite (-light), now promotes itself as the counterculture. A counterculture is very different than a mere sub-culture. The latter is simply a group of people distinguished by fashion or belief or background or lifestyle who live more or less in tolerated co-existence with the dominant culture.

The counterculture, on the other hand, exists to oppose and even overturn the dominant culture. Sub-cultures, because of their fringe or marginalized status, may eventually join the counterculture, but in general they are more or less content to stay on the margins without seeking revolutionary change.

The alt-right argument is essentially that the counterculture of the 1960s, which was in every respect liberal, has (since when exactly?) become the dominant culture. It is now conservatives and people on the right in general who are the cultural revolutionaries.



"The dominant culture, the argument goes, has become so liberal, so politically correct, so intolerant of traditional values, so globalized, that it is only the right that offers any sort of genuine alternative. It is now the right -- and more accurately the hardcore far right -- that is truly different, that is edgy, that is new, that is hip. Everything else is awash in and captured by identity politics; paradoxically puritanical and utterly degenerate, riddled rotten with hypocrisy.

But while there is some legitimacy in its critique of the dominant “liberal” culture, and this needs to be examined closely, it is entirely inaccurate to call the alt-right a counterculture. The alt-right argument goes very wrong, and misleadingly so, with its first premise. This, intentionally or not, consists of a mistaken view of the original 1960s counterculture.

An authentic counterculture (regardless of inevitable Agency infiltration and misdirection within it) did emerge in the 1960s; and it can be called authentic not because it was liberal, but because it was anti-war, anti-corporate, anti-imperialist, anti-police state and opposed to anything that would seek to place bounds on the limits of consciousness. And in fact it was largely directed against an Establishment that fashioned itself as being liberal.

This counterculture -- despite going on to immensely influence popular culture and bring about clear reforms -- largely failed in its main objectives. Corporate capitalism, war, imperialism, the dulling of consciousness, imbalances and inequalities of all sorts, have continued and have greatly outpaced anything present in the 1960s. Only the image of the 1960s counterculture succeeded, and this only because it was so effectively co-opted and exploited by capitalism."

 

[luka]

... more from znore....

"The corporate/war culture of the 1950s and before was not overthrown or even halted in the 1960s, and the Leviathan has grown far more powerful today. The alt-right poses no threat to this dominant culture and offers absolutely no alternative to it. It is only opposed to the politically-correct, social-welfare, humanitarian-intervention veneer that society has been whitewashed with since the 1960s.

In this sense the alt-right is refreshing to many. People are understandably sick of the hypocritical facade. It’s better to be oppressed by a crook who admits that he is a crook than one who tries to make you think that he is your friend. Bad cops are always easier to stomach than “good” cops.

The election of Trump, far from indicating widespread support for any particular policies, was an expression of mass revulsion against the sham. And the alt-right is right to expose this sham. But they are, most adamantly, not in any way apart from it. They want to return to the good old days when the iron hand wasn’t cucked into wearing the silk glove. This is all that is going on."

 

[IdleRich]

5T t's t's 5Z5 I 5Z5!

 

[luka]

"And another historical truism is Walter Benjamin’s often bandied about insight: “Behind every fascism, there is a failed revolution.” This entirely explains the rise of the alt-right and similar “nationalist” movements globally. The system, which is global and which cannot be accurately termed as being either capitalist or socialist -- it is corporatist -- has reverted from a “globalist” phase back to a “nationalist” phase.

At the risk of war and social breakdown it has largely abandoned its public affirmation of a globally-integrated, corporate-dominated, common market -- although this agenda also creeps forward -- and has subtly promoted the idea of national determinism in order to ward off complete collapse and/or revolution."

 

[luka]

`'When MAGA inevitably fails -- and inevitably it will simply because it has no intention or possibility of addressing the massive debt and inequality at the heart of the present crisis -- then the alt-right will already be there to point out who caused the failure.

As pawn-level fascists have always argued at such times, the economic, cultural and social collapse to come will be the fault of the socially marginalized; of Antifa, BLM, third-wave feminists, SJWs, entitled millennial snowflakes, illegal immigrants, transsexuals, communists, Muslims, the Jooooos... The aims of the alt-right are very clear: demonize these groups and more in the eyes of the public, increasingly present themselves as the more reasonable, more hip, more fun alternative, and to push for increased state repression of the above “terrorist” groups. All of this is occurring right now.

The rise of the alt-right appears to be part of a very insidious agenda. Websites that were once interested in all aspects of marginalia -- psychedelics, the occult, synchronicity, living off the grid, alternative energy, space aliens, the paranormal, conspiracy, higher consciousness, anti-police state, alternative history, Forteana, organic food, non-allopathic medicine, radical politics, general weirdness -- now have white nationalism as their primary focus."

 

[luka]

this is the bit some of you bedwetters might take exception to but it is undeniable as far as im concerned

"9/11, of course, directly caused the cancellation of this march, but it also effectively ended the movement. The War on Terror became the focus of the Empire and its media outlets, and xenophobia, fear and war became the norm. Even here, though, there was still a glimmer of hope. More and more people began to seriously and actively doubt the official story of what happened on that day. Many of these doubters were former anti-globalization activists.

There was a opportunity for the movement to be reborn by taking a much deeper parapolitical turn in its analysis, to discover how the system frequently uses conspiracy to protect its structure and deflect crisis. It would have only taken Noam Chomsky to say that it was a legitimate perspective to doubt the official story of 9/11 in order for this movement to crystallize. Chomsky, limiting his methodology to the analysis of public documents (and I don’t believe he had more sinister aims in mind), did not do this.

Instead, the remnants of the anti-globalization left largely followed Chomsky’s lead and adapted the “blowback” thesis for 9/11. This move, I think, alienated hundreds of thousands from the left. These people, sent adrift as I was, scrambled to find answers elsewhere and it didn’t take long to find them. They were discovered in the old conspiratorial right and in its new media incarnations.

How many people were driven directly, and seemingly paradoxically, from Chomsky to people like Alex Jones and beyond from about 2002 to 2006 just because the left had no good answer of what really happened on 9/11?

This, I think, is the real origin of the alt-right, long before it had taken on that name. It consisted of mainly online researchers, many once affiliated with the anti-globalist left, who were directed through the rabbit hole straight to the clutches of the already deeply paranoid and anti-Semitic hard right. The popularization of the critique against Cultural Marxism began at this point."

 

[craner]

This is like Jacob Talmon finding the roots of fascism in the French Revolution.

 

[Leo]

Given that the working class supports the American "right" I don't think it's crazy to see the left/right distinction as a bit mixed up right now. You gotta lot of axes: stances on economics, identity politics, authoritarian vs democratic politics. And they don't all go naturally together; the adhesion is partially constructed by historical circumstance

is it a "given", though? my working-class (in the American sense) family and friends in Massachusetts remain reliable moderate democrats, from college-age cousins to 80-year old aunts. It might depend on geography, and (as I always say) not equating twitter with the real world. remember, Clinton won the popular vote by 3 million.

also, I'd imagine the average person does not select a party or affiliation, and then go down that group's checklist and align their positions on issues with that of the group. seems more likely to be the other way around: people have beliefs and positions, some of which might fall into the moderate left camp and others into the moderate right? there are plenty of people who take liberal positions on social issues but not on fiscal matters.

 

[DannyL]

"And another historical truism is Walter Benjamin’s often bandied about insight: “Behind every fascism, there is a failed revolution.” This entirely explains the rise of the alt-right and similar “nationalist” movements globally. The system, which is global and which cannot be accurately termed as being either capitalist or socialist -- it is corporatist -- has reverted from a “globalist” phase back to a “nationalist” phase.

At the risk of war and social breakdown it has largely abandoned its public affirmation of a globally-integrated, corporate-dominated, common market -- although this agenda also creeps forward -- and has subtly promoted the idea of national determinism in order to ward off complete collapse and/or revolution."

I like the Benjamin quote but the rest of it is the sort of thinking that drives me mad. Globalist or nationalist it doesn't matter, 'cos its all the system, maaaaaan. Obama and Trump, just the same! It's a continual failure to cope with the demands of specifics in favour of a generalised distrust and paranoia.

 

[DannyL]

And 9/11 skepticism as well.

Bemoaning the rise of the alt-right, while in advocacy of the central paranoid conspiracy narrative of our times. You can't complain about people getting heated about the joooooos [insert handy denial enabling synonym here i.e. globalists] if you push this shit.

 

[thirdform]

the driving forces behind our political inclinations are basic and crass (the need to belong, the need to be right, to feel superior and high status, disgust) and ideas around how the world should be organised follow much much later. We all play this down a little

yeah, see you're wrong here. I want to abolish politics, and that includes its left wing marxist varieties.

Like I said yesterday. I follow Bordiga in this matter:

He was like the Robert Hood of his day, ruthless marxist formalism in the service of revolution. So formalistic and fundamentalist that its bound to alienate you from 99% of marxists.

 

[linebaugh]

Matthew Hiembach, a white supremacist organizer of Charlottesville fame, has apparently recanted. He's an anti capitalist now.

In From the Cold: Why I Left White Nationalism | Light Upon Light

by Matt Heimbach After Charlottesville, Matt Heimbach was considered the future face of white nationalism in the United States. Now, he's out of the movement. In this, his first public statement

www.lightuponlight.online

Whats strange is he doesn't say anything to distance himself from his previous beliefs and there's much doubt of the sincerity of his new position. What I got is that he's a William Faulkner style racist now: white people are cognitively superior, but that doesn't justify unequal treatment.

"My descent down the rabbit hole of white nationalism began with Jared Taylor’s writings and books like the Bell Curve, before graduating onto such “classics” as The Turner Diaries, the Northwest Front series, Mein Kampf, and Imperium."

"My first in-person meetings were disappointing, though-- elderly men sitting around, rehashing the same old tune from the George Wallace campaign of 1968. A record stuck on repeat. It was clear that white nationalism’s “Establishment” was dying out. But soon I discovered a growing network of young, energetic, and exciting individuals that would come to be known as the “Alt-Right.” Instead of discussing segregation and school bussing ad nauseum, these kids were content-creators like me: publishing articles, podcasts, music, and art as the means to deliver our ideological message. These were my comrades."

"The fact of the matter is that it’s true: the capitalist system is one hundred percent grinding White working class people into the dirt. But the true realization must come that it isn’t just White working class people who are suffering, but all working class people. It is not about race, but class."

"Within twelve hours of my arrest, multiple independent factions of the Traditionalist Worker Party had splintered off, with wannabe mini-Fuhrers making their move for power.... My own former comrades, who a week earlier had chanted “Heil Heimbach” at the top of their lungs, were now telling me that they would look forward to putting me up against a wall and shooting me come “The Revolution” that their new seven man organization would surely lead. "

 

[thirdform]

Matt W seems to set the tone for amazing music, K-punk for the spirit behind some of the arguments. I think he's become a bit canonised since his passing perhaps, it occludes the fact that lots of people were disagreeing with him.

yeah. he didn't half chat a load of shit.

 

[thirdform]

The idea of saying "well this is what we've got" about capitalism and recognising that every attempt to stop or reform it has been a dismal failure seems a realistic starting point at least. Idk about anything beyond that point.

that is not their starting point. *grumbles where's the fucking raki in lockdown*

 

[thirdform]

It's my impression that the alt-right is thoroughly a reactive movement. Or negative, in terms of defining themselves in opposition, whereas the neoconservatives actually have ideals and principles

noone has principles in politics. To have principles by default excludes you from the arena of politics. It's just that in America one was able to camouflage this through gladio and counterguerilla. now that there is no soviet, American politics is also revealing its true mask of self-interested positional technocrats.

 

[thirdform]

And 9/11 skepticism as well.

Bemoaning the rise of the alt-right, while in advocacy of the central paranoid conspiracy narrative of our times. You can't complain about people getting heated about the joooooos [insert handy denial enabling synonym here i.e. globalists] if you push this shit.

I don't think one needs to go down the conspiracy rabithole for 9/11 skepticism. More rather the skepticism is to be found in the ideas of white orientalist 'muslim fundamentalism.' People like Bin Laden or Da'esh are more rational than the angloamerican imaginary makes them out to be. One cannot analyse 9/11 without looking at both Assad's, King Husain of Jordan, increasing saudisation of the islamic world, support for hamas against the PLO, and so on.

 

[version]

Matthew Hiembach, a white supremacist organizer of Charlottesville fame, has apparently recanted. He's an anti capitalist now.

Is he a Strasserite or something now then?

 

[thirdform]

and actually a lot of people who have become what about the uyghurs/what about the syrians were perpetuating this islamic extremism narritive in the early 00s, - as if extremism is something especially for muslims. they tried to find islamic justification in what al-qaeda do, not political justification. yet noone would do that to christians siting the old testament. So in that sense liberals were in a conspiracy - not a conspiracy theory but conspiring, through automatised interests, to demonise the waves of muslim immigrants living in their countries.

 

[linebaugh]

Is he a Strasserite or something now then?

He got hooked on the booze, caught a battery case at a rally, and after a brief stint in the klink his associates splintered and went at his throat, death threats and the like. He claims he's completely past white nationalism in any sense, but cant help but notice that came conveniently after white nationalists wouldn't have him any way.

 

[thirdform]

I like the Benjamin quote but the rest of it is the sort of thinking that drives me mad. Globalist or nationalist it doesn't matter, 'cos its all the system, maaaaaan. Obama and Trump, just the same! It's a continual failure to cope with the demands of specifics in favour of a generalised distrust and paranoia.

well, Obama's record is worse than that of Trump's, I mean you should know this with your interest in the Syrian rev. I don't think these equivocations are helpful. the fact is there is actually no real opposition to the direction that the American state has been going in, in the arena of international geopolitics.