Alt Right vs Alt Left

[steve_bank]

The media responds with an all hands on deck when an event occurs from the extreme right. Little attention is paid to the extreme left.

Every year the anarchists and Black Bloc show up in Seattle throwing fire bombs, provoking police, and damaging property. People running around in black Ninja clothes with faces covered. They carry hand made weapons.

Seems like a clear media bias.

 

[Cheerful Charlie]

I have seen stories in the past on the anarchist's bad behavior in Washington state. It is not like it is never reported. But then, we don't have anarchist politics being mainstreamed into American political culture like we see neo-Nazi and White Nationalist culture.

 

[Patooka]

Yep, I never hear Tucker Carlson, Sean Hannity, Judge Jeanine Pirro, Alex Jones, Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh, The Gateway Pundit, The Daily Caller, Ben Shapiro, Ann Coulter etc go on about the extreme left.

Also, three seconds and google lead me to this article, (here are all the other results), so clearly there is bias, it's just not being perpetrated by the media in this instance.

 

[Ford]

I know...right? Remember that time when an alt-left guy drove his car into a crowd of alt-right protestors and killed someone? The MSM refused to cover it. What gives, media?

 

[Subsymbolic]

Is Alt left a thing at all? Or is it just Fox trying for false equivalence?

While I’m at it, since when were anarchists left wing? Ironically, a belief in the elimination of the state is a libertarian position usually associated with the right...

 

[Ford]

Is Alt left a thing at all? Or is it just Fox trying for false equivalence?

While I’m at it, since when were anarchists left wing? Ironically, a belief in the elimination of the state is a libertarian position usually associated with the right...

Folks on the right have been building up "the left" as the worst thing ever for a generation at least. The "secular left" is even worse, but when that didn't scare people enough they came up with the "alt left." Embodied by such fearsome outlets as the "New Black Panthers" and Antifa. Because god forbid you be anti-fascist.

 

[Mumbles]

Is Alt left a thing at all? Or is it just Fox trying for false equivalence?

While I’m at it, since when were anarchists left wing? Ironically, a belief in the elimination of the state is a libertarian position usually associated with the right...

"Alt-Left" was originally an attack on racist and/or misogynist liberals ("Alt-Right", to contrast, was a self-chosen cover for white nationalists and Nazi fetishists). It was commandeered by Dolt 45 because he can't recognize the most obvious forms of bigotry, and like many bigots, thinks everything is equal on "both sides".

 

[fromderinside]

Apples and Oranges

alt-left:

1. (This is a hot sense, kept provisionally) (politics, pejorative) A mainly online-based section of the political spectrum that is left-wing while in some way illegitimate or contemptible, such as holding paradoxically conservative views, or acting simply to oppose conservatives or the US government, rather than out of genuine ideology.*

alt-right

(chiefly US, politics) An amorphous group of right-wing ideologies opposed to multiculturalism and egalitarianism by race and sex, mostly active on the internet; often supportive of anti-Semitism, Islamophobia, white nationalism and white supremacy, adherence to which is sometimes claimed to be ironic

Really? Because someone had the 'wit'? to designate deep state political views as alt-right there must be a counter faction called alt-left? I can only supposes these would be those with view of shallow state politics. We're actually getting into fake whatever.

Really? Faeries versus Little Debby (twi...)?

*^{_{https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/alt-left}}
**^{_{https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/alt-left}}

 

[untermensche]

Fascists like to claim that those who oppose their fascism are a danger.

The only fascism I see in the US is the fascism on the right.

The gun nuts and white supremacists. The bigots. Those with Islamophobia. The Wall builders. The America firsters.

Some college kids screaming about this or that, many times in opposition to fascism, is meaningless nonsense that effects nothing.

Bombing Muslims nonstop for 17 years is something.

 

[lpetrich]

The media responds with an all hands on deck when an event occurs from the extreme right. Little attention is paid to the extreme left.

Have you tried counting news stories?

Every year the anarchists and Black Bloc show up in Seattle throwing fire bombs, provoking police, and damaging property. People running around in black Ninja clothes with faces covered. They carry hand made weapons.

A lot of left-wingers hate them. Some of them even believe that they are police provocateurs. Making them false-flag activists. I think that they are assholes who want an enemy to fight. Fortunately, the alt-right has given some of them an enemy that they are willing to fight.

 

[Opoponax]

Oh fucking please.

There is no "alt-left." It's a moniker made up by right wing baboons to counter the very real rise of conservative right wing nationalism and white Christian supremacism. There simply is no leftist equivalent of the Tea Party or any other manifestations of ass-backward political dog-leavings that we've seen slither out from under a rock over the past decade or so.

Some kids dress up in black suits and commit acts of vandalism every once in a while. Therefore leftist radicalism poses a threat to the security of the nation and should be covered as extensively as the dimwitted would-be tyrant in the White House who's trying to find out who did and didn't vote for him, while at the same time blaming non-existent illegal immigrants for non-existent voter fraud in order to stir up shit-for-brains white people who are predisposed to racist conspiracy theories.

Seems legit.

 

[Jolly_Penguin]

The media responds with an all hands on deck when an event occurs from the extreme right. Little attention is paid to the extreme left.

Every year the anarchists and Black Bloc show up in Seattle throwing fire bombs, provoking police, and damaging property. People running around in black Ninja clothes with faces covered. They carry hand made weapons.

Seems like a clear media bias.

The biggest difference is that the President is said to identify with one of these two groups (the alt-right).

Also, I would say that both groups are misguided and confused, but I think it needs to be pointed out that neither the alt-right or alt-left are necessarily violent or hateful. They both have hateful and violent people within them, but it isn't all or even most of either group.

 

[Jolly_Penguin]

"Alt-Left" was originally an attack on racist and/or misogynist liberals ("Alt-Right", to contrast, was a self-chosen cover for white nationalists and Nazi fetishists). It was commandeered by Dolt 45 because he can't recognize the most obvious forms of bigotry, and like many bigots, thinks everything is equal on "both sides".

I have usually heard it used broader than that, regarding the regressive left; the people on the left who oppose free speech, push gender and race double standards, etc. That would include racist and misogynist liberals but it would also include others. Have I misunderstood the label?

 

[Mumbles]

Oh fucking please.

There is no "alt-left." It's a moniker made up by right wing baboons to counter the very real rise of conservative right wing nationalism and white Christian supremacism. There simply is no leftist equivalent of the Tea Party or any other manifestations of ass-backward political dog-leavings that we've seen slither out from under a rock over the past decade or so.

The closest are "Bernie Bros" - Sanders supporters who are also happy to call Clinton a "bitch", called Ta-Nehisi Coates a "nigger" for disagreeing with Sanders on Reparations (note that TNC voted for Sanders!), and so forth. These guys were mostly just online trolls, while the "Alt-Right", again, is an intentional rebranding by white nationalists - it was literally chosen by Richard Spencer, famous for shouting Nazi slogans and getting punched in the face.

Some kids dress up in black suits and commit acts of vandalism every once in a while. Therefore leftist radicalism poses a threat to the security of the nation and should be covered as extensively as the dimwitted would-be tyrant in the White House who's trying to find out who did and didn't vote for him, while at the same time blaming non-existent illegal immigrants for non-existent voter fraud in order to stir up shit-for-brains white people who are predisposed to racist conspiracy theories.

The anarchists don't even recognize themselves as a part of the Dems, or as liberals or progressives, actually. Dolt 45 and the white supremacists seem to see one another as fellow travelers, though - and I fully agree.

 

[Angry Floof]

Is Alt left a thing at all? Or is it just Fox trying for false equivalence?

While I’m at it, since when were anarchists left wing? Ironically, a belief in the elimination of the state is a libertarian position usually associated with the right...

It's a false equivalence put forth by right wing authoritarian followers. They have little or no capacity for either empathy or self reflection, and so the false equivalence is all they have to make the cognitive dissonance butterflies go away when their inhumane world view based in fear and selfishness is called out for what it is.

The main difference is that while all humans have the capacity for bad behavior when they are scared and angry, it's mainly the religious and political right that actually codify excuses for bad behavior into the principles of their world view.

A few basic cognitive traits tend to align with what we call "liberal" and "conservative."

Liberal - open, accepting, inclusive, skeptical, creative, independent.
Conservative - closed, fear of other, fear of change, submit to authority, distrust of and willingness to punish out groups.

So yeah, some people behave badly when they're pissed. But you can just about guarantee they are pissed about shit that causes actual suffering in society, and not pissed that someone didn't swear allegiance to a symbol, or didn't conform to some mindless tradition, or isn't too scared to go to 7-11 unarmed, or doesn't believe in death panels or Benghazi or pizzagate conspiracy fantasies, or for not scapegoating small and vulnerable groups.

 

[Loren Pechtel]

I have seen stories in the past on the anarchist's bad behavior in Washington state. It is not like it is never reported. But then, we don't have anarchist politics being mainstreamed into American political culture like we see neo-Nazi and White Nationalist culture.

Exactly. The Alt-Left isn't much of an issue because just about everyone agrees they're assholes. No controversy, not much news value.

 

[SimpleDon]

The left and the right differ in one other critical way that hasn't been brought up so far, and that is in the amount of damage that the respective extremes of our body politic have done to the nation. Hands down the extreme right has done much more damage to the US than the extreme left has. This is because the extreme right is much closer to the positions of the Republican party than the extreme left is to most Democrats. The Democratic party is predominately a right of center party.

The policies that have damaged the nation the most are conservative ones like deregulation, support for ever-increasing income inequality, the refusal to accept global warming as a problem, the depreciation of intellectual pursuits, the strong support for the corporate welfare aspects of the military, the support for the continued divisive racism, xenophobia and homophobia, the support for creeping theoretic rule based on three ghosts, governing the economy based on the fantasy of market self-regulation, privatization of government functions, the profitization of the healthcare sector, and many others, pretty much anything enacted in the last forty years. The Democrats have been responsible for supporting many of these, possibly with less zeal than the doctrinal conservatives of the Republican party, but neverless they have supported many of these.

The left has been marginalized by the success of the conservatives. They have caused relatively little damage to the nation as a result. Their damage has been pretty much limited to damaging themselves, anti-Vaxx, anti-GMOs come to mind. The only thing that has really damaged the nation is their anti-Nuke memes about power plants. It makes global warming the ultimate ignored problem of today, conservatives deny that it is a problem and liberals block the best solution for it.

 

[Derec]

Oh fucking please.

What?

There is no "alt-left." It's a moniker made up by right wing baboons to counter the very real rise of conservative right wing nationalism and white Christian supremacism. There simply is no leftist equivalent of the Tea Party or any other manifestations of ass-backward political dog-leavings that we've seen slither out from under a rock over the past decade or so.

Every moniker is made up on some level. Alt-left is the handy counterpart to alt-right I guess. Just like alt-right, "alternative right" has been apart from GOP establishment, so the alt-left is Left apart from Dem establishment. Occupy Wall Streeeters, Black Lives Matter rioters, Pipeline blockaders and valve turners. Women's March organized by women who like Sharia and Louis Farrakhan. People like that are what I think of under "alt-left".

Some kids dress up in black suits and commit acts of vandalism every once in a while.

In the last few years, it has been more than once in a while.

while at the same time blaming non-existent illegal immigrants

Huh? You do not think there are illegals?

for non-existent voter fraud in order to stir up shit-for-brains white people who are predisposed to racist conspiracy theories.

What Trump says does not really disprove that there is a segment of the left that would fit the "alt-left" moniker.
Except I think that they played a role in getting Trump elected. Think about it. For two years before the election, we saw #BLM rioters burn down American cities because some criminals were killed by police. In 2016 we saw protesters trying to prevent construction of an oil pipeline. And during the election season, many of Trump's rallies were disrupted by these alt-leftists.

Seems legit.

Yes.

 

[laughing dog]

Except I think that they played a role in getting Trump elected. Think about it. For two years before the election, we saw #BLM rioters burn down American cities because some criminals were killed by police.

Which American cities were burned down?

In 2016 we saw protesters trying to prevent construction of an oil pipeline.

And you think that helped Trump get elected?

And during the election season, many of Trump's rallies were disrupted by these alt-leftists.

Political rallies are routinely disrupted these days - even the rallies of candidate who lose.

 

[Ford]

Which American cities were burned down?

Maybe he's referencing the Bowling Green Massacre?