{"id":382,"date":"2016-09-02T21:16:48","date_gmt":"2016-09-02T21:16:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rhetoric.commarts.wisc.edu\/?p=382"},"modified":"2016-09-06T14:59:45","modified_gmt":"2016-09-06T14:59:45","slug":"on-conspiracies-and-cucks-the-rhetoric-of-the-alt-right","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rhetoric.commarts.wisc.edu\/?p=382","title":{"rendered":"On Conspiracies and Cucks: The Rhetoric of the \u201cAlt-Right\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

This post was co-authored by Kevin Musgrave (UW-Madison, Communication Arts) and Jeff Tischauser (UW-Madison, Journalism and Mass Communication).
\n<\/em><\/p>\n

The brash new wing of the conservative movement, the so-called \u201cAlt-Right,\u201d has drawn public attention and ire, with Democratic Presidential nominee Hillary Clinton condemning them in a recent campaign speech in Reno, Nevada.\u00a0 Despite this recent publicity, questions abound.\u00a0 Who exactly are the \u201cAlt-Right?\u201d\u00a0 How do they differ from other conservative groups and what are the defining characteristics of their rhetoric?<\/p>\n

\"Clinton

Clinton condemns the “Alt-Right” in Reno<\/p><\/div>\n

Though many prominent media outlets including the New York Times<\/em><\/a>, Salon<\/em><\/a>, the Daily Beast<\/em><\/a>, as well as media watchdog groups FAIR<\/a> and Media Matters<\/a> have published pieces on the group, a solid conceptualization of the \u201cAlt-Right\u201d remains elusive.\u00a0 Emerging from these pieces, however, is a list of common characteristics that may allow us to articulate the defining communicative and rhetorical norms and strategies of the \u201cAlt-Right.\u201d<\/p>\n

The \u201cAlt-Right\u201d is often defined with and against the development of the New Right, a nebulous conservative movement represented by the rise of Barry Goldwater and Ronald Reagan. Blending fiscal and social conservatism with a strong military presence and foreign policy, the New Right offered a means of fusing what rhetorical scholar Michael Lee calls the conflicting dialects of traditionalism and libertarianism that constitute the political language of conservatism in the United States.<\/p>\n

Yet, if Reagan has become synonymous with the fusionist message of the New Right, the \u201cAlt-Right\u201d has emerged within a conservative vacuum that has seen the Republican Party, post-George W. Bush, struggle to create a message capable of unifying traditionalists and libertarians alike. Indeed, what the \u201cAlt-Right\u201d appears to be doing in its rhetoric is actively delinking these two dialects, re-articulating an extremist traditionalist message, and separating the language of conservatism from the Republican Party.<\/p>\n

Manifesting primarily in online forums such as 4Chan, Reddit, and RadixJournal, the \u201cAlt-Right\u201d consists mainly of 18-35 year-old white males who are, as their leader Milos Yiannopoulos claims<\/a>, \u201cyoung, creative and eager to commit secular heresies,\u201d through the creation and circulation of openly racist, sexist, and nationalistic memes.<\/p>\n

The usage of these memes is a way of signaling belonging to the group by demonstrating a fluency in the \u201cAlt-Right\u201d vernacular.\u00a0 The memes are marked by the conspiratorial style of a white genocide narrative, an ironic deployment of racial tropes, protectionist rhetorics of white tribalism, and a European Anglo identity politics premised on racist pseudo-science.<\/p>\n

In advancing a return to tribal politics, the \u201cAlt-Right,\u201d as Jack Hunter of the <\/a>Daily Beast<\/em><\/a> argues, defines itself against the radical individualism of the libertarian dialect as articulated by conservative firebrands such as Goldwater.\u00a0 Denouncing individualism in favor of a radical traditionalism that calls for a return to communal, authoritarian, and hierarchical politics premised on racial difference, the \u201cAlt-Right\u201d abandons the religious metaphysics of Russell Kirk, Richard Weaver, and other traditionalists in favor of a racial science that justifies a disdain for egalitarianism and democracy.<\/p>\n

One prime example of how those in the \u201cAlt-Right\u201d use memes to circulate these messages is the common term used by its members: \u201ccuck.\u201d\u00a0 This term rhetorically defines the \u201cAlt-Right\u201d as opposed to establishment Republicans–cuckservatives<\/a>–maligned by the \u201cAlt-Right\u201d as neocons and liberal Republicans pushing an internationalist agenda that threatens the white race.<\/p>\n

In the satirical depiction of the American Conservative<\/em> magazine below, internet users have fashioned the publication as a cuckservative mouthpiece, promulgating the death of the white race in efforts to achieve social justice.\u00a0 Advancing a conspiratorial narrative that views immigration, inclusion, assimilation, and diversity as an affront to white masculinity and racial purity, the cuckservative is one who has emasculated himself, become a traitor to his race, and permitted the affordance of a white minority population and colored body politic through liberal policies that advocate for pluralism and equality.<\/p>\n

\"WhiteGenocide\"\"Cuckservative\"<\/p>\n

Engaging in racist pseudo-science to support claims of white supremacy, the \u201cAlt-Right\u201d not only biologizes racial difference but also uses hereditary and cognitive science<\/a> to argue against egalitarianism.\u00a0 In this way, the values of the Enlightenment philosophy of classical liberalism, heralded by the libertarian right, become anathema to core \u201cAlt-Right\u201d tenets of communal, tribal belonging, racial hierarchy, and authoritarianism.\u00a0 In redefining conservatism this way, the \u201cAlt-Right\u201d is imagining conservatism as an Anglo European identity politics and mainstreaming core tenets of white, authoritarian nationalism in popular discourse.<\/p>\n

Enter Pepe the frog, a character previously associated with #gamergate, anti-semitic attacks on journalists and activists, and the male rights movement<\/a>. Pepe plays to members of the white in-group who understand the joke for what it really is, a call to action. In this sense, Pepe is the wink after the racist joke. The rhetorical power of Pepe, like the racist joke, is that it lets its purveyors escape with plausible deniability. The ironic detachment that emerges in Pepe\u2019s history helps to conflate intention with effect, allowing users to distance themselves from its often racist connotations. Rendering Pepe in Hammerskin Nation<\/a>-like<\/a> attire, covered in blood, carrying guns used by Nazi SS Stormtroopers, is not racist, or disrespectful, rather it\u2019s an irreverent way to shock and disrupt PC culture.\u00a0 Sharing Pepe memes allows members of the \u201cAlt-Right\u201d to espouse its \u201cfuck your feelings politics<\/a>,\u201d distancing themselves from liberals and mainstream conservatives through vitriolic rhetoric.<\/p>\n

\"PepeTrump\"<\/p>\n

\"Pepe\"
\nWhen the Trump campaign tweeted an image of himself as Pepe in October 2015, to @BrietbartNews and others, with the message, \u201cYou Can\u2019t Stump the Trump,\u201d he rhetorically positioned himself as the Presidential candidate of the \u201cAlt-Right.\u201d\u00a0 As a candidate whose views on American exceptionalism, immigration, and anti-PC culture resonate with the message of the \u201cAlt-Right,\u201d Trump stands as a figure capable of making white nationalist ideas a political reality.<\/p>\n

Trump thus represents the power to create a sovereign nation state that protects white men from perceived economic and cultural threats. However, Trump stands more as a vehicle for the \u201cAlt-Right\u201d ideology than its driver. Even as Trump\u2019s appeal appears to be diminishing with conservatives, his core \u201cAlt-Right\u201d constituency, aided by an array of \u201cAlt-Right\u201d media outlets<\/a> and its dedicated meme warriors who troll Reddit and 4Chan, the \u201cAlt-Right\u201d as a political force is not going away any time soon.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This post was co-authored by Kevin Musgrave (UW-Madison, Communication Arts) and Jeff Tischauser (UW-Madison, Journalism and Mass Communication). The brash new wing of the conservative movement, the so-called \u201cAlt-Right,\u201d has drawn public attention and ire, with Democratic Presidential nominee Hillary … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":20,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rhetoric.commarts.wisc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/382"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rhetoric.commarts.wisc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rhetoric.commarts.wisc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rhetoric.commarts.wisc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/20"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rhetoric.commarts.wisc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=382"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/rhetoric.commarts.wisc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/382\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":398,"href":"https:\/\/rhetoric.commarts.wisc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/382\/revisions\/398"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rhetoric.commarts.wisc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=382"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rhetoric.commarts.wisc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=382"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rhetoric.commarts.wisc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=382"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}