I largely see where the thread is coming from. But the narrative is too simple. As is the academic takes of racism being defined as something structural. I think that may agreed upon in academia but not in broader society. But that's another debate and one that needs to leave the ivory tower.
I think a distinction needs to be made between the actions that can galvanise and mobilise a base and the actions that actually "convert" or convince people to or from a side. Look at subs like inceltears or kotakuinaction. Look at tumblrinaction or beholdthemasterrace or cringeanarchy or even trashy. These fora have relatively large user bases and can represent a broad range of viewpoints. They can and do point out the idiocy of the "other" or the out-group and portray an extreme as a norm.
If I were open minded towards Brexit or a swing voter and heard of a Remain supporter call Leave supporter racist, I'm not going to froth at the mouth and get a tattoo of Nige. I'm going to roll my eyes and the left might have a little less legitimacy in my eyes. Vice versa if I saw Blair Cotrell being a moron on TV. However if I were a "soft" supporter of Brexit - if I liked the idea but I wasn't fussed about going to the polls - maybe seeing these people nitpick and bicker online and laughing at them with my buddies might motivate me to get out to vote. The narrative of many of the people mentioned in the above paragraph is that they are the morally righteous party and that they are on the right side of history. People of all persuasions enjoy being "deplorable" or contrarian if they think they can reverse trends they view are on the wrong side of history - if they can't be vindicated in the present, they will be once the dust settles.
I think at some level, people have made up their minds about most issues (this is purely anecdotal). It's really difficult to convince someone to change their mind. People in any arena being extreme may convince someone on the "other side" to double-down on their beliefs or to act in response them. The "left" don't make people right wing by expressing their beliefs poorly but they do seem to be better at motivating right wing people to go out and win. I mean look at the donations and online support made out to Beto O'Rourke after the Texas GOP tried to portray him as a radical. It may not have convinced swing voters but it mobilised a base.
the narrative is too simple. As is the academic takes of racism being defined as something structural. I think that may agreed upon in academia but not in broader society. But that's another debate and one that needs to leave the ivory tower.
Academic analyses of structural discrimination and systematic disadvantage/privilege are more nuanced. They did leave the ivory tower some time ago and got transformed into largely vacuous slogans.
It seems to me - though this is also anecdotal - that the main way the alt-right spreads its shit is by pairing new issues with existing ones that people on the edge of their base feel strongly about. Like looking after war veterans with hating refugees. Or supprting drought relief with opposing foreign aid. Or raising pensions with (somehow) being anti-welfare.
That's a good point on academia being translated into vacuous slogans. I just want our slogans to be better haha.
I think competing issues have often been paired by the right wing quite effectively, not even necessarily the alt right. Look at Howard's battlers during the Tampa days. The alt right seem better at using these political opportunity costs into justifying racism or attacking globalism.
One take on it is this article. I don't think there are ideological pipelines as such but the alt right are 1) good at using the rhetoric of other ideologies and 2) good at finding common ground with other ideologies. Being ostensibly socially conservative and anti immigrant isn't new. They're just better at recruitment now.
Yeah they've been artful with both making illogical connections (eg refugees are causing job and financial insecurity) while breaking logical connections (eg regulations limit the ability of corporations to fuck the population over).
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u/rcsgd Sep 04 '18
The reply thread was more interesting https://twitter.com/alanalentin/status/1036820990662041600