Kaderrius and I led a discussion on the White Frustration and White Rage readings. In these readings, we learned about the concept of red pilling and how alt-righters use that through the media to their advantage. This is a very interesting tactic that I didn’t know about before this and I think red pilling is something that everyone needs to be aware of. Since red pilling is supposed to be subtle, most people don’t know that they are being manipulated and brainwashed. Kaderrius found a really great example of a guy that used to identify as liberal, but came across alt-right videos on Youtube, and as a result of red pilling, he fell into the rabbit hole. It showed how alt-righters and men’s rights activists know how to manipulate the mainstream media to amplify their ideas and distort news narratives to their advantage. This is probably why alt-lighters mostly always become alt-righters; well thought out and coded language used for persuasion can easily tip alt-lighters to the right. We also showed some examples of the different platforms alt-righters use to discuss anti-feminism, such as the Reddit forum called “The Red Pill”. Another website is called the Daily Stormer, which is a hate speech platform where alt-righters aggressively post about their beliefs. This then led to an interesting discussion on the freedom of speech and where we draw the line between hate speech and freedom of speech since these can mean different things for different people. I don’t think that hate speech should be protected under the first amendment, but I think the government needs to regulate hate speech.
We then talked a little bit about the emergence of The Proud Boys and their role in the alt-right movement. It’s crazy to me that this ‘cult’ was created so recently and that it still exists today. I think the reason why is because all of these alt-right movements and discussions happen online, and I’m not sure how I would come across any of those topics online. We discussed whether we would consider The Proud Boys a hate group, and I think I would consider them as a hate group. They are notorious for misogyny and they put way too much effort into fighting liberalism, feminism, and multiculturalism, both verbally and physically.
Lastly, we talked about how male alt-righters want to live the way that we used to live. They want to maintain patriarchy within white families, and they want women to return to the “tradlife”, in which their main role is to have kids and care for them. Alt-righters are fearing white extinction since white people are having fewer children and white men, in particular, are dying at a much faster rate. According to the US Census, it is also projected that by 2050, the majority-white population will be replaced by multiracial people. I found this really ridiculous because the white population will just never die off. Alt-righters feel like they have such a responsibility to normalize white nationalism and keep white supremacy alive. There are so many more issues to be focusing on in our country and it’s disappointing to see that people are prioritizing white nationalism.
Honestly, this topic scares the hell out of me. Your point at the end of this reflection is well said – white nationalists will continue their cry for white superiority until the white race dies off. With climate change, that will likely not precede the death of the entire human race. The human desire to preserve whiteness is important to recognize with great disgust and awe. These white nationalists are frightening because they brainwash people into rejecting forms of human decency. How do we fight these white nationalists? The best way, like we discussed in class, is with internet intervention. Sadly, even though the red pill site was taken down, another just like it went up in its place. The internet is to blame for this – ugh.
I think this whole notion of white people believing in white extinction is ridiculous. I say this because I personally believe that even if we see a shift in what the majority is in this country, I still think that there will always be a degree of white privilege. So even if the number of white people may decrease, white people will still be in those positions of power and influence pushing back on the idea that they are going extinct. You cannot have full white extinction if there is still so much influence by this group of people. I am very interested to look back at this in 30 years from now and see if white extinction has happened to a certain degree.