I thought this was an interesting discussion.
Years later, I still keep tabs on people like Hannah Gais, Michael Edison Hayden and Jared Holt out of habit. I couldn’t resist chiming in on X with my thoughts after listening to the show.
No, the “alt-right” did not win in the sense that it was a rebrand of White Nationalism in the mid-2000s. I think it inherited and was brought down after Charlottesville by all of its major hang ups. Specifically, it was too radical, secular, anti-Christian and Nazi to ever resonate with the American Right. The movement lost cohesion and collapsed after it showed this face when it was in the national spotlight.
Yes, in the sense that the Charlottesville disaster proved to be a blessing in disguise in the long run. The leadership of the alt-right was decapitated by the wave of lawfare, deplatforming and doxxing after the Unite the Right rally. At this critical moment, the void of leadership was filled by Tucker Carlson and other conservative influencers who inherited the audience in 2018. Tucker & Co. have spent the last seven years nurturing and developing the audience and mainstreaming its views on the Right.
I compared the alt-right on X to a beachfront roach motel that is bought by a corporate developer at a bankruptcy auction who have replaced the previous owners, torn down the old property, renamed and redeveloped it into a high rise condominium. This is essentially what has happened. You can find baked into the shiny new structure nearly every idea that was associated with the old alt-right with the most recent milestone being the end of the taboo on criticizing Israel and the Jewish Question.
In this new political structure on the GOP Plantation, which is adjacent to The Reagan which is still their premiere beachfront property and where older conservatives and the vast majority of members of Congress still live, there is now space to “name the Jew” and criticize Israel, to slam Churchill and the postwar consensus, to be “postliberal,” to talk candidly about racial differences and black crime, to support mass deportations of illegal aliens, draconian immigration laws, to discuss male grievances about feminism, to support protectionist trade policies, oppose anti-White discrimination, attack the Civil Rights Movement, and so forth. You can talk about UFOs or any number of conspiracy theories about vaccines. None of this is beyond the pale anymore. Populism has been given space to bloom. At the end of the day though, the GOP owns the property, Tucker Carlson is like the manager, Charlie Kirk lives in the penthouse at the top and we are the tenants and this structure exists to support Trump.
Why was this alt-right replacement structure built? To corral, pacify and domesticate the unruly younger conservative audience which was “red pilled” on sites like Stormfront and 4chan and to bring them into the mainstream political process and coalition politics. To secure the future of the mainstream Right.
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