What a fascist ideological current needs to become a movement is a way to crossover. To gain entry into the culture, into public discourse, into the collective consciousness. Over the years, fascism, with its various ideological positions like innate human inequality and essentialized identities, has found people that could bridge the edge of acceptability to their world of racism. In the 1980s and 1990s this was largely made up of Paleoconservatism, where the high water mark was people like Pat Buchanan. It also took the form of the broader conspiracy theorist world, which mainstreamed ideas like the Jews being responsible for 9/11 or the notion that the Holocaust was a Jewish fabrication.
Today, the Alt Right is the latest successful branding of the ongoing fascist movement, and it simply brings white nationalism into the current world of memes and ironic hashtags. Its massive growth has come, largely, from an internal culture where someone can rise to the status of subcultural celebrity without ever being known to the mainstream. Within this world they have still had to find ways of mainstreaming their message, and they have done this by cozying up to people who make many of their larger political points without all of the baggage.
This group of people has been termed the Alt Lite: a sort of Diet Alt Right who brings in a lot of their ideas and their cultural behavior without committing to the hard white nationalism, traditionalism, and reactionary revolutionary ideology. We have compiled a list of the key Alt Lite players who are helping to bring this movement to the surface, and discuss how they are important to target as mouthpieces for fascism.
Milo Yiannopoulos
No person has done more to mainstream the Alt Right than Milo. After coming to fame while leading the charge to harass women over the ridiculous nonsense of GamerGate, Milo moved on to writing at Breitbart where he contributes click-bait fluff intended to incite anger against women, transgendered people, Muslims, and just about everyone else. As a publicly gay man, he has used his marginalized identity as a cover to basically go on violently anti-LGBT tirades, while at the same time championing Donald Trump as “pro-gay” since he is anti-Muslim. Milo wrote a guide to the Alt Right for Breitbart and has done many speeches about it, while also allowing people like the Radix Journal’s Richard Spencer attend his RNC party, interviewing people like Jack Donovan on his podcast, and speaks highly of race realist Jared Taylor. Milo has lacked the ideological consistency that the Alt Right prefers, which has made many turn on him, but he has made a celebrity for himself (and sizeable fortune) traveling to colleges and ramping up vicious reactionary sentiment.
Gavin McGinnis
Gavin was the co-founder of Vice magazine, back when it was just reactionary hipster schlock and before it became a culturally relevant publication. In 2007 he was eventually forced out for his reactionary ideas, which he was propagating in op-eds for places like the American Conservative. Over the years he has popped up in a number of trendy publications and projects, always coming in with “anti-PC” talking points, usually drudging up openly racist, sexist, and homophobic tirades. Now he has his own talk show and contributes to places like the proto-Alt Right website Taki’s Magazine (more on this later), and he likes to interview people like, again, Jared Taylor and Richard Spencer. He openly professes American nationalism, usually with open racialism, and has committed to “IQ realism” between the sexes. He has uttered all but the most radical propositions of the Alt Right, even though he hints at under his awkward smile and handlebar moustache.
Alex Jones
Over the years Alex Jones and Infowars have evolved in many ways. Best known for being a warehouse for various bizarre conspiracy theories, from 9/11 Truth to the Branch-Dividian compound raid in Waco, Jones represented a sort of paleolibertarianism that was against “globalism.” Though always on the right, he has shifted his publications even more so, and now represents a sizeable pro-Trump faction. Several of these commentators have referred to themselves as Alt Right (more on that in a moment), and Infowars itself has made its prime directive to harass leftists and post memes and videos attempting to mock them. It is difficult, of course, to mock the intelligence of anti-fascist protesters when you have built your career with announcements that Freemasons use the Washington monument to channel psychic energy. Though Jones himself has become a prime figure in the Alt Lite, it is more Infowars as an institution that acts in this service. This has been especially true since it has been very vulnerable to manipulation by Alt Right people, especially through their support of Students for Trump organizations and has had participation from people like Johnny Monoxide from The Right Stuff (Now featured on the podcast The Paranormies and does video for Red Ice TV).
Stefan Molyneaux
Though known for his popular YouTube channel and basic libertarianism, Molyneaux has headed to the right as his videos increasingly focus on race and IQ, the anti-Semitic ideas of Kevin MacDonald, and the “realities” of black on white crime. He props up some of the key issues of the Alt Right, including interviewing Jared Taylor and others, and is seeming to take the same right-hand turn that people like Christopher Cantwell have. His deep participation in libertarianism as a political movement has given him a pass by many, and you will even find his videos on places like the Students for Liberty website (A note to SfL, if you want to deny your associations with the Alt Right, maybe you should drop Molyneaux videos from your website, stop hosting Milo events, and disallow Cantwell at your conventions.).
Vox Day
This is a name that we actually may need to remove from the Alt Lite list and simply put in the camp of the Alt Right. Vox Day is best known as a Science Fiction author who staged a coup on the Hugo Awards, attempting to block writers of color and women from nominations. He is also a videogame designer and general social critic, one who spends his time going on The Daily Shoah, the Counter Currents podcast, and most other white nationalist enclaves. He calls himself Alt West as opposed to Alt White, mainly meaning he is a civic nationalist rather than a racial one (he is actually tri-racial himself). He is fine, however, with the violent level of racism in the Alt Right, and tries to give it a loudspeaker whenever possible. His book SJWs Always Lie has been one of the most read of the Alt Right tomes, and equally embarrassing in arguments and sophistication.
Anne Coulter
This again might be a bit of a cheat since Coulter does not hit the same cultural scene that the rest of the Alt Lite does, but her power in the Alt Right makes her an important crossover point. Coulter has been a racial arsonist for years, tapping into the white rage implicit in the Republican Party and stoking racial animosity. She is one of the few traditional GOP apologists that has linked themselves to Trump, and she has done this since she has become a “single issue voter” when it comes to immigration. She said recently on Bill Maher that Trump could “do abortions in the Oval Office” if he built the border wall with Mexico. She has been a favorite on the Alt Right and has often been celebrated as she takes on their message about women, queer people, Muslims, and immigrants and sending it to a larger audience. She has even rubbed shoulders with the Alt Right at times, like at the 2012 CPAC where she called the Traditionalist Youth Network’s Scott Terry a “handsome Southern stud” after he spoke up at a panel in favor of chattel slavery.
Sargon of Akkad
Named after the first ruler of Akkadian Empire of 24th Century BC, this prolific YouTuber has used his popularity to help the Alt Right edge itself into the more popular libertarian and Manosphere. Often indulging in “anti-SJW” attacks on women, bizarre misreadings of history, and various celebrations of Trump, he represents the kind of personality that most makes up the Alt Right. He trolls for donations since this appears to be his job, yet he has been unwilling to go far enough to make the Alt Right neo-Nazis happy.
Joshua Seidel
This entry may be a bit of a cheat as well since the Alt Right has almost universally rejected him. Seidel is a Jewish writer who writes for Forward and has identified himself as Alt Right since he essentially doesn’t like “political correctness” and revels in insulting liberals. His article made literally every Alt Right website (including American Renaissance) say that he was not Alt Right since the Alt Right was anti-Jew (Andrew Anglin had even more choice words for him). What Seidel has done is to help confuse the actual nature of the Alt Right (just as Milo has) and made it seem like a slightly more acceptable political ideology than it actually is. If you hear Alt Right leaders uncritically invited to comment on social issues on cable news, it is because people like Seidel have softened their edge enough so that they seem like just another edge of modern conservatism.
Paul Joseph Watson
The most popular co-host at Infowars, Paul Joseph Watson often refers to the Alt Right as “us” and seems like a “fellow traveler.” His focus has been on Trump and the “problem of Globalism,” voicing the anger of white men who feel threatened by changing demographics and an internationally connected world. He is less ideological than many, especially since there is not a lot of content at Infowars that is running too deep.
Lauren Southern
Southern has taken on the role as a female Canadian libertarian who spends most of her time attempting to antagonize the left. When Augustus Sol Invictus was banned from entering Canada to speak at an American Front event, she came to his defense and harassed protesters until she had urine thrown on her. In 2015 she ran as a libertarian candidate in Canadian elections and currently runs Rebel Media where she mocks Slutwalks and the International Women’s Day.
Sam Hyde
The internet comedian who founded the Million Dollar Extreme sketch show has been known for parroting Alt Right talking points, and getting his voice onto places like Adult Swim and a controversial and satirical Ted Talk. Hyde has often come under the radar in many of these exposes, but has clear ties to white nationalist hacker Weev, who is known for his Nazism, pro-genocide views, and his work at the neo-Nazi Alt Right website The Daily Stormer. Hyde is often used as a meme by Alt Right Twitter handles, and they see him as a strategic tool to get their ideas out under the guise of humor. His troll behavior and white supremacy has been well known in media circles for quite some time, but it is only counter-trolling about Hyde being a “mass shooter” suspect that has gotten the press talking. Hyde joined in on harassing women during the GamerGate controversy, which also started the fame of Milo. Between his Twitter account, his racist TV show, and his various campus speaking events, Hyde mocks the LGBT community, accuses black people of low intelligence and criminal behavior, and rails against immigration.
Outlets
Breitbart
No outlet is more important to the Alt Lite than Breitbart. Those on the liberal left often uncritically parrot that it is the center of the Alt Right, which is untrue and presents a problem. If the Alt Right is Breitbart, then it represents an incredibly sizeable part of the conservative establishment. The Alt Right, instead, is just white nationalism rebranded, complete with the belief in the genetic inferiority of black people and the pernicious world conspiracy of Global Jewry. Breitbart is instead more of a reactionary conservative outlet that revels in race baiting and woman bashing. It has been a major source for Alt Right research, fueling their “hate facts” that they use to present a narrative about the white world “under attack.” They have given an incredible platform to people like Milo, including articles that were friendly to the Alt Right and certainly support their worldview. It has helped to mainstream their message in very broad ways and should be confronted on those terms.
Taki’s Magazine
Taki was Breitbart back when Breitbart was shilling for the Tea Party. The magazine has been around for many years as a paleoconservative outlet that was “pop culture savvy.” After Richard Spencer was fired for being too racist for the American Conservative, Scott McConnell helped him to get the job as the editor of Taki, taking his racial arsonist perspective and refashioning it for social media clickbait. It has made a habit of picking up the work of people who have been dropped by the mainstream conservative movement for their racialism, like Paul Gottfried, former National Review writer John Derbyshire, former Forbes writer and VDare founder Peter Brimelow, race realist Jared Taylor, and disgraced Heritage Foundation researcher Jason Richwine. After Spencer left Taki to found Alternative Right (and the Alt Right in general), Taki remained the proto-Alt Right publication it had always been, and has continued forward publishing “edgy” racists like Gavin McGinnis.
Infowars
As mentioned above, Infowars has become a huge internet sensation that mixes silly conspiracy theories with “Old Right” style isolationist nationalism. Its daily functions are mainly to attack liberals, posting videos calling protesters “trannies,” saying that they are “triggered,” and trying to show them in stupid debates. While the host, Alex Jones, has taken a sharp rightward turn, the website broadly has been taken up by a pro-militia, pro-nationalist cadre that spends more time attacking minorities than fighting the “New World Order.”
Property and Freedom Society
This is not exactly a publication, but more of a conference. It is essentially a libertarian conference that happens abroad, but it has hosted most Alt Right leaders in conversations that were openly racist and anti-Semitic. People like Jared Taylor, Richard Spencer, racist scientist Richard Lynn, and others have all appeared there, showing some of the crossover that libertarianism has traditionally had with the far right. Even against pressure it has maintained these racialist guests and has become an international forum that they have used to their advantage. We would also put the Mises Institute as following many of these connections as well, especially with the neo-Confederate movement, but not quite to the level of the Property and Freedom Society.
Sons of Confederate Veterans
Again, not a publication but an organization that often positions itself as non-political. It was from this relatively neutral Confederate memorial organization, which does things like Civil War remembrance events and setting up cemetery monuments to Confederate soldiers, that the League of the South developed to make a more revolutionary neo-Confederate and Southern Nationalist movement. The Sons of Confederate Veterans continue to come out and support the more radical fringe of the movement, and shares a lot of members with the LoS, the Council of Conservative Citizens, and even the KKK.
There is a certain complexity to the way that the Alt Right plays with the Alt Lite, and the two are often at odds. What is important is that the Alt Lite gets the “red carpet” by institutions, schools, and companies in ways that the Alt Right rarely does. They have also forced major media institutes to accommodate even the most radical voices in the Alt Right, and are allowing their views to have a seat at the table.
Because of their major profile they are also more vulnerable to pressure. Milo is continuing on his expensive “Dangerous Faggot Tour,” and he will be doing well-paid events at campuses around the country from now until mid-2017. Campaigns can be done at colleges to stop his events from happening, or shutting them down when they do. People like Molyneaux are equally vulnerable, and pressure can be put on libertarian organizations like Reason, Caito, and others who attempt to ally with left movements. As he is further marginalized he will have less and less access to mainstream discourse. With YouTube, podcast, and web hosting, complaints can be put in to the service providers since they are almost universally violating the Terms of Service. This presents an easy pressure point to cut off their voice, and this has been incredibly successful when shutting down full Alt Right podcasts like The Daily Shoah and Fash the Nation.
With places like Infowars, people are often going to see them in public antagonizing protesters at Trump actions or general left-oriented social movements. This can be dealt with in its own way, and it is great to stonewall their antagonisms by refusing to engage and blocking their cameras while overwhelming their microphones with sirens and megaphones. What they want more than anything is to get a protester to engage with them so they can try an antagonize them into doing something foolish or attempt to throw silly talking points out, so they can instead by blocked from having a voice entirely. We stand in solidarity with the IWW members who blocked Alex Jones at the RNC, the PSUSU and supporters in Portland who silenced Infowars supporting the Portland State Students for Trump, and the various anti-Trump protesters that made Infowars correspondants look like fools during the primaries.
The Alt Lite is likely to stay int the semi-mainstream past a Trump loss and the further marginalization of the Alt Right. They have used the brief moment of half-way acceptability the Alt Right has achieved, where they think it is safe to flirt with the Alt Right to gain “street cred.” After this white nationalism is further marginalized they will likely attempt to put distance between themselves and its racial nationalism, and it is up to us to stop them from doing this. Milo’s career needs to never lose the taint of his open racism, even if he tempers his rhetoric. We need to continue to hold their feet to the fire and to set a standard that nationalism of any form will not be tolerated.
