Undercover With the New Alt-Right

BuddyTheBeefalo@lemmy.ml to News@lemmy.world – 172 points –
Undercover With the New Alt-Right
thenation.com
15

Even having left America, this article fills me with foreboding. They're trying to create "Nazi Germany, but friendlier".

People in the political center and on the left tend to have a monolithic view of the far right. In reality, it is an expansive ecosystem that includes neo-Nazis, Christian nationalists, conspiracy theorists, anti-government militias, and white nationalists. These groups have some beliefs that conflict, but they are generally willing to overlook their differences. Still, not every group uses the same tactics to try to gain power.

A lesson the left doesn't ever seem to learn. The worst enemy of the left has been, is, and always will be, the left. The infighting is insane.

I think the problem is that the right is unified in hate. It's a very simple, very basic emotion, that's mixed together with tribalism and group think. It helps people create a bonds as well as an "us vs. them" mentality, which is very strong.

People on the left however are split because they don't want to hate, they want to be inclusive and tolerant. That however is very difficult when someone hates you and is intolerant. You can't be tolerant of intolerance, love hate, and include exclusiveness. However, being intolerant of intolerance, hating hate, and excluding exclusiveness creates a cognitive dissonance. The left is very capable of hate, exclusion, prejudice, etc. as they are humans, but because they aim to become "better" than the conservatives, liberals, etc. they create large divisions in their groups that can't overlook their differences.
And will forever be a problem of the left. Being better is difficult.

The worst enemy of the left has been, is, and always will be, the left. The infighting is insane.

Idk about that, I would argue that the people that killed or imprisoned leftists or plan to do so have been/are the worst enemy of leftists. Like in Germany the nazis kinda killed or exiled a whole generation of leftists of all stripes. I think that is way worse than infighting, arguments or splitting up.

And calling something negative "insane" has a kinda ableist tone. I think other words would be equally effective in making your point.

I think you just made ops point.

If you think polite disagreement is infighting, then no wonder you have no clue what you're talking about...

By the way, impolite disagreement is also not infighting.

Another aspect that you missed is that the government and systems of power are threatened by the left, so they actively sew discord inside the left.

Those systems and governments have an active interest in ensuring that the left is fractured.

I think it’s more accurate to say that those in power are threatened by the left rather than government as an entity. We have shitty, corrupt leaders whose agendas conflict with the left’s calls for fairness, equity, and accountability.

You know what the right does better than the left? Vote.

Let's change that first.

I'm a fan of looking up articles information especially in regards to far left media. Far right usually is pretty easy to tell it's fake because it's so outlandish and off the cuff.

I looked into some of the guys mentioned in this article to confirm if they're far right or if they're actually just some old guy bitching about the way things used to be and going a little too far... No. It was like hardcore racists making insane remarks online. Some of them I couldn't find but look it up. One of them has a website. Insanity.

Good article OP.