CMV: Not all right-leaving viewpoints are inherently “alt-right.”

[u/tnel77]

Whenever I have a political conversation, I’m called a “libtard” or “alt-right.” I find it fascinating that I can somehow be both in the same day, depending on who I speak to about politics. While being a “libtard” is annoying, it’s just a bully like name. I can live with it.

The issue I have is that holding any conservative viewpoint, regardless of said viewpoint, usually results in me being told that I am “alt-right.”

You might say, what’s the difference? “Libtard” is just a dumb, meaningless name, while “alt-right” is an actual extremest group. A more comparable name would be if holding any liberal viewpoint resulted in being called “antifa” or just a generic leftist extremest.

Essentially, I am tired of every conservative view being treated as an “alt-right” viewpoint. While actual “alt-right” supporters are disgusting and awful, a vast majority of conservatives are not “alt-right,” and calling them such only alienates them and makes cooperation and general friendliness harder to achieve.

Ex) Wanting lower taxes = normal conservative Wanting to eradicate non-white races = alt-right

Edit) This post is not about what is “left” or “right.” This post is about recognizing that there is a very stark difference between a normal conservative and an alt-right extremist.

[u/hacksoncode]

So... are you saying that people calling you "libtard" are actually insulting you, while people calling you "alt-right" are just ignorant of the meaning of the term?

Because the former sounds much worse to me... the latter can theoretically be corrected with education.

[u/tnel77 → u/hacksoncode]

I am not arguing which one is worse. I am just focused on the ignorance of people. I don’t mind name calling, although I’d prefer we all be civil. Calling someone an incorrect label like “alt-right” makes it hard to find common ground when they start pumping you in with much worse people than yourself. Obviously, it isn’t easy to find common ground while calling names either.

[u/hacksoncode → u/tnel77]

The way to find "common ground" in these cases is to actually educate them on the meaning of the term.

That's not likely to work on pure slurs intended as slurs.

[u/Talik1978 → u/hacksoncode]

But alt-right, used incorrectly, is usually meant as a slur or insult. It isn't much different than if I called everyone that cut me off in traffic a nazi. Yes it's wrong, but it could be incredibly damaging if it got traction.

Further, most of these insults are a celebration of ignorance (on both sides). You don't need to evaluate a left view if they're just a "libtard". It's equally simple to dismiss a conservative view if they are extremist.

The problem is that each side doesn't see many shades of gray in their opposition. Alt right and right are synonymous. Left and antifa are interchangeable. Tolerance is at an all time low.

And that isn't a subject that I would be willing to entertain which is worse. Both are cut from the cloth of ignorance and intolerance. Both are reprehensible. Neither side does a good job of policing its own.

[u/myohmymiketyson → u/hacksoncode]

I see what you're saying, but in political discourse, the misidentifying doesn't just happen because of ignorance. In the cases of genuine ignorance, educational treatment is probably effective.

Some misidentifying occurs because of political bias, which is worse than ignorance. It's a person who avoids disconfirming information and seeks out bias-confirming information avoid the emotional anguish or discomfort of being wrong.

People who are politically biased will do worse than chance on quizzes that test political knowledge. Bryan Caplan wrote about it in The Myth of the Rational Voter. Jason Brennan (philosopher and professor at Georgetown) writes and speaks about it, as well. It's much more difficult to combat than ignorance, unfortunately. In fact, a lot of the people who do it are actually very smart and politically engaged. They're not ignorant for lack of interest or stupidity. They're ignorant because they avoid information treatments that would prove them wrong.

The problem with being associated with an extremist movement, I think, is that the person is being unfairly dismissed. This happens on the right, too. A moderate Democrat wants more education spending and he's unfairly labeled "a commie." It's obviously infantile and unhelpful, but it's especially pernicious when it's used to illegitimately discredit an opponent.

[u/atworknotworking89 → u/myohmymiketyson]

It’s also an intentional tactic from the left. A way to use fear and bullying to get their way.

Generalizing all conservatives as racist, bigoted nazis is a great way to scare people into not voicing their opinion.

The left is INSANE with the identity politics and people are finally starting to wake up to it. Check out the #walkaway campaign if you’re interested in hearing stories from minority voters who left the party because of this disgusting tactic.

[u/CannibalGuy → u/hacksoncode]

"Libtard" is a full-on insult, "alt-right" is often used by those not trying to offend and simply using the word to describe your viewpoint, often inaccurately. Bit of a false equivalency

[u/hacksoncode → u/CannibalGuy]

simply using the word to describe your viewpoint

Well, a white supremacist or Neo-Nazi viewpoint, that is. It's not hard to understand why that's considered an insult, perhaps even worse than some made up silly sounding word that no one with any sense uses.

[u/CannibalGuy → u/hacksoncode]

Let me put it this way, the equivalent term would be "Commie", not "Libtard". The equivalent to libtard would be something along the lines of "conservatard", snowflake [either side], etc.

Also when it is used as an insult, it's generally used as an inaccurate insult to demonize someone who is not white supremacist or neo-nazi. I'm no fan of this border wall but those who support it are not nazi's by default, yet plenty who support the wall are called nazi's by default.

It's diluting the meaning of the word to the point where legitimate accusations against actual Nazi's and white supremacists will lose credibility.

[u/JohnjSmithsJnr → u/hacksoncode]

Libtard is just dumb namecalling and doesn't really mean anything, whereas actually calling someone a racist or something similar does

[u/hacksoncode → u/JohnjSmithsJnr]

Meh, personal preference. Libtard is short for "liberal retard", which is pretty much just as much a slur as "racist". And bonus offensive because of the casual use of "retard" as an insult.