Radical Rightwing Racist TrumpFlakes Face Dire Punishment, Possible Extinction

[Dr. Jai Maharaj]

The 'Far Right' in America: A Brief Taxonomy

Untangling the different figures and factions, from the Klan to the alt-
right.
Richard Spencer of the National Policy Institute arrives on campus to
speak at an event not sanctioned by the school, at Texas A&M University in
College Station on December 6.
Richard Spencer of the National Policy Institute arrives on campus to
speak at an event not sanctioned by the school, at Texas A&M University in
College Station on December 6. Spencer Selvidge / Reuters

Matt Ford Jan 22, 2017 Politics

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Subscribe to The Atlantic’s Politics & Policy Daily, a roundup of ideas
and events in American politics.

Donald Trump’s election to the presidency has elevated a set of radical
groups, generally understood to be on the extreme right of the American
political spectrum, to their greatest prominence in the modern era. Some
mainstream publications have struggled to describe these disparate groups,
especially those that openly espouse racism.

To help understand the distinctions and relationships between these
groups, here’s a brief taxonomy.

White supremacists and white nationalists

Although the terms are often used interchangeably, there are genuine
ideological differences between them. White supremacists believe that
people of European descent are biologically and culturally superior to
people from non-European regions. In multiracial societies like the United
States, they espouse a racial hierarchy in which white people enjoy a
privileged status.

White nationalists, on the other hand, oppose multiracial societies and
instead support the creation of a white ethno-state. How this state would
be created is an open question: Richard Spencer, who runs a white-
nationalist institute and occasionally garners genteel profiles in
mainstream publications, has called for “peaceful ethnic cleansing.”
Others support more violent means to their ultimate end.

Nazis and Neo-Nazis

The term “Nazis” is generally reserved for former members of the National
Socialist German Workers’ Party, which ruled Germany from 1933 to 1945
under the leadership of Adolf Hitler and oversaw the Holocaust. The Allies
legally abolished the party at the end of World War II; only a handful of
its original members are still alive. The most-wanted Nazis still sought
by the Simon Weisenthal Center, the most prominent Nazi-hunting
organization, are elderly ex-guards who served in concentration camps in
eastern and central Europe.

Neo-Nazis idolize Nazi Germany and adopt its symbolism. Like their
namesakes, neo-Nazis espouse a virulent hatred of Jews as well as non-
whites, people with disabilities, and the LGBT community. George Lincoln
Rockwell’s American Nazi Party was among the most prominent organizations
to take root in the United States after World War II, but had little
widespread appeal. Today, hate websites like Stormfront act as a
decentralized hub for neo-Nazi ideas and discussion.

Ku Klux Klan

The first Klan was founded by ex-Confederate officers in the aftermath of
the Civil War. During the Reconstruction era, Klan groups intimidated and
murdered black freedmen and white Republicans who sought to build a
functioning multiracial democracy in the South. President Ulysses Grant
and the newly founded Justice Department successfully eradicated the Klan
by the mid-1870s.

The Klan’s second iteration in the 1920s and 1930s functioned as a social
fraternity of sorts dedicated to preserving white supremacy. In addition
to its hostility towards black civil rights, this version also
incorporated anti-Catholicism, anti-Semitism, and xenophobia. Those themes
would carry over to the third and modern version of the Klan, which
emerged as a response to the African American civil-rights movement’s
success in the 1950s and 1960s. The contemporary Klan is more of a
movement than a single organized group, ranging from militant factions
that support violence to figures seeking mainstream reputability like
David Duke.

Neo-Confederates

A largely regionalist ideology grounded in Confederate revivalism and
nostalgia for the “Old South.” According to the Southern Poverty Law
Center, which monitors hate groups nationwide, neo-Confederate ideology
“incorporates advocacy of traditional gender roles, is hostile towards
democracy, strongly opposes homosexuality, and exhibits an understanding
of race that favors segregation and suggests white supremacy.”

What separates the neo-Confederate movement from other white supremacists
is its historical narrative. A cornerstone of the ideology is the “Lost
Cause” mythology of the Civil War, which portrays the South as a victim of
Northern aggression against states’ rights. It also favors a hostile view
toward Reconstruction-era reforms towards multiracial democracy, often
relying upon the Dunning School of history that overemphasized Republican
corruption and elided white Southern violence.

Alt-right

The term “alt-right” was coined in 2008 by Richard Spencer, a white
nationalist who has called for a “peaceful ethnic cleansing” of the United
States. Spencer is best known for giving a speech met with Nazi salutes at
a white-nationalist conference in November to celebrate Trump’s victory.
While many of those who identify with the alt-right also identify with
white nationalism or white supremacy, not all of them openly espouse such
beliefs.

What nearly all alt-right groups and advocates share is a hostility toward
Muslims as well as opposition to immigration, modern feminism,
egalitarianism, and pluralistic societies. Some entirely reject liberal
democracy. Internet culture shapes the alt-right’s rhetoric and provides a
lingua franca for its ideologically nebulous followers. It also draws
heavily in tone and tactics from the Gamergate movement, a loosely
affiliated connection of online trolls that harassed feminists in the
video game industry.

Those affiliated with the alt-right portray themselves as steadfast
defenders of American society against left-wing political correctness
enforced by a globalized elite. Some alt-right members use anti-Semitic
tropes and describe the globalist elite as Jewish; others do not. Many
prominent alt-right figures have been lightning-rods for controversy. Milo
Yiannopoulos, a Breitbart writer, was permanently banned from Twitter for
inciting harassment of black actress Leslie Jones.

The movement gained increased prominence due to its enthusiastic support
for Donald Trump’s presidential campaign. Most notably, Breitbart News
chairman and Trump campaign CEO Steve Bannon declared his publication to
be the “voice of the alt-right.”