May
7th 2012
Posted under Media & Political Philosophy & Race
This is a couple of days old, but I just came across it today. Looks like there are some changes in store for AltRight. The article is worth a read. I’ll append my thoughts when I have a little time, but I wanted to get the conversation started if anyone is interested.
Kirt Higdon on 07 May 2012 at 7:31 pm #
I read the article when it was first posted and I think time will tell as far as its significance is concerned. If Spencer is out of the editing altogether, I may post on altright as the spirit moves me. I still have kind of a grudge against Spencer for his censoring of my comments on Takimag.
Aaron on 07 May 2012 at 8:33 pm #
Why’d he censor your comments? I thought the only people who got censored there were white nationalists, and you’re obviously not one of them.
Not Libertarian on 07 May 2012 at 11:03 pm #
On a personal level I have always liked Richard. Politically I think he has gone off the deep end, ignoring the council of now former friends who tried to warn him that the white nat world was a dead end.
I think the constant harping on race at altright has been a real shame as there has been some great stuff up there that has been ignored as a result. Still when Richard starting talking about an Alternative Right, many of those people (myself included) who embraced the term didn’t realize it would largely become a vehicle for “race is everything” style criticism.
I’m not sure the market for a more “Gothic” AmRen was ever really there and while I find the nationalist/Nazi themes of some black metal performers interesting, I’m not sure that sort of stuff is the sort of thing you can really build a site around
Kirt Higdon on 08 May 2012 at 2:26 am #
Aaron, he took offense at me referring to Hillary Clinton as “the white witch”. He apparently took that as being a racist comment rather than catching the reference to the first Narnia story of CS Lewis, although other commentators picked up on that. Or maybe he considers CS Lewis to be an anti-white racist.
I never knew Takimag to censor white nationalists other than Captain Chaos and I always suspected that he was a deliberate caricature of a white nationalist.
RedPhillips on 09 May 2012 at 1:16 am #
Sav, what is a “sperg?”
thaddeus on 09 May 2012 at 2:28 am #
I often posted at Alternative Right at the beginning, under a pen name that, I’m pleased to say, some of the commenters there still remember.
I still think Alt Right occasionally produces fine articles. Alex Kurtagic’s essays are inconsistent, but when he’s good, he’s exceptionally good, and he penned the two finest articles that Alt Right ever published (one about Romanticism, a long while ago, and one very recently about Equality).
Alt Right made an error by not being more arts-oriented, which is what Kurtagic’s best articles have always advocated: the need for traditionalists to engage with the culture (art, fiction, music, etc.), and not merely stick to journalism and opinion. Alt Right should have solicited and published short stories, novel excerpts, film scripts, literary essays, poems, etc.
I think the site still has fine writers, including the excellent Mark Hackard and Colin Liddel.
Nowicki has published some good material, but also a fair bit of weaker content. I never understood why the site was supporting giving him a paid vacation to Africa.
Alt Right once had another brilliant writer in Richard Hoste, and Hoste’s departure was the first sign of weakness in Alt Right.
There were two things that ultimately made me break with Alt Right; one significant (1), the other perhaps seemingly trivial (2) but to me, intolerable.
1. The “be nice to the Jews” symposium, which had Spencer taking the William F. Buckley role as opposed to the Sobran/Buchanan position. Counter-Currents, by contrast, gets this issue right.
2. The constant promoting of Keith Preston and his vile phrase, “Totalitarian Humanism,” to describe cultural Marxism. I’m sorry, but given the inestimable value of historic Humanism to the growth of traditional Western culture, I cannot stand someone who is on our side being complicit with the Left in allowing the Left to hijack this term. Houston Stewart Chamberlain writes at length about the value of Humanism to the development of the West.
Occidental Observer is now the finest traditional-Right publication. However, there was a time, in the first year or so of its existence, that Alt Right was as good as OO or even better, because it covers the material that OO does, but also had a wider scope.
And of course, Alt Right’s gorgeous visual presentation set a standard that many traditionalist sites subsequently followed. I still find it the most visually appealing of all of the sites on our side of the political spectrum.
Matt Weber on 09 May 2012 at 2:31 pm #
I can’t say I was an avid visitor of Altright, going only once a week if that. It seemed to me that the site somewhat declined after a fairly active start. I think it was unfocused, which was somewhat intentional, and that it lacked any kind of guiding force to keep it on track and out of the weirdness. As Derbyshire put it, there are a lot of nuts on the right and you really do have to purge every now and then.
I suppose that last is really the problem. I still haven’t figured out what HBD is supposed to tell us or for what it is useful. “Game”/Men’s Rights is probably the worst–I agree with Thomas Fleming that there is something very unmanly about the whole thing. Neo-paganism seems like throwing out the baby with the bathwater, resting on a specious account of the secret liberalism of Christianity–only laying dormant for 1500 years! And then there are the Joos, which if rightists are to be believed really are a master race to which we have no choice but to submit.
I don’t agree with Thaddeus about Hoste, but I do agree with him that altright was at its best when arts focused. It was the kind of thing you really couldn’t find elsewhere. Artistic rightism has been moribund since at least the Nazi era, and that was mostly modernist kitsch. One of the best altright articles was on a norwegian composer, Tveitt.
thaddeus on 09 May 2012 at 3:38 pm #
Savrola’s comments = classic ad hominem uselessness. “Serious” organization? Needless to say, everyone will have their own definition of “serious.” And it’s a classic Leftist tactic to pathologize anyone with whom one disagrees. The alt right should stop doing this, once and for all.
Once again, we see here the greatest problem anywhere on the alternative right — that people are more concerned with purging people to the RIGHT of them than to the left of them. (Yes, I know, right/left are fluid terms, but I trust you see what I mean.)
The Left doesn’t have this problem. It enshrines and celebrates and defends its more-left-than-I extremists. It serves them well. We would do well to follow this example.
Derbyshire’s comments about “nuts on the right” is absolutely poison. If anything, it makes me think he richly deserved being kicked out of his well-paying NR position, as HE became considered a “nut on the right” by people on the right who are too the left of HIM.
That’s the stupidity of this kind of “purge” thinking — it makes us define ourselves as valid by the enemy’s leftist paradigm. The more left we are, the more respectable we are — so goes this approach.
Rather, our entire focus should be on attacking “nuts on the left.” We should applaud anyone to the right of us, especially as that is where the greatest energy often comes.
If traditionalism were to gain ground, then NR would praise the Neo-Confederates, the Neo-Confederates would praise the alt right, the alt right would praise OO, OO would praise Stormfront, etc. That the opposite happens means that each one of us believes that where we are is the furthest right that one can be, and everything further right is morally “wrong.”
It’s when we begin to view morality as to the RIGHT of where we are that traditionalism will gain confidence — the confidence (and cultural success) of the Left.
Matt Weber on 09 May 2012 at 4:31 pm #
Thaddeus, what you’re ignoring is that truth matters. This is not entirely a cynical plot for political gain. If someone is saying that the Jews have a group evolutionary strategy to destroy the white race, I’m not obliged to believe this just because they are on the same “team” as me. Being on the right doesn’t mean that you are right.
The problem with Derbyshire isn’t that he was purged, it is that he was purged for being unfashionable rather than being a genuine wacko. Lowry didn’t even make the case that Derb was incorrect (he could hardly have made such a case), he just said “gross, go away!”. We should be governed by what is true, not what is fashionable.
Johnny Two Note on 09 May 2012 at 5:08 pm #
Alternative Right when it started was one of the most promising websites on the alt / paleo right. It’s still good but it’s lost much of its original steam and its original broader scope. Now it’s too late to go back. Perhaps Spencer could just start an entirely new website?
Chronicles website used to be good but it’s now hardly active. American Conservative has become too politically correct.
In the long term, the best alt right / paleo site is VDare. Browse its archives.
Right now, BY FAR, the best alt right / paleo site is The Occidental Observer, very hot right now. If you like essays on art and music, read everything by Lasha Darkmoon (pen name for academic):
http://www.theoccidentalobserver.net/2009/11/spitting-mad-jews-and-angry-artists-part-1/
http://www.theoccidentalobserver.net/2009/11/spitting-mad-jews-and-angry-artists-part-2/
Johnny Two Note on 09 May 2012 at 5:53 pm #
Savrola & Not Libertarian — until you two have actually stepped up to the plate and done something for your race I’d lay off the criticisms of Spencer. No one is perfect and at least he’s fighting the good fight.
Uncle Jimbo on 09 May 2012 at 8:01 pm #
it’s a Judenconspiracy, those crafty bastards got him just as he was at the peak of his influence! and by peak i mean valley.
Patroon on 09 May 2012 at 11:37 pm #
You can build a “Alt. Right” based on paganism or racialism or death metal music but it would not be conservative, not in the least.
The persons at the top of masthead, that’s what it’s about.
thaddeus on 10 May 2012 at 1:29 am #
Of course this is not true. We have a hierarchy right now, with the, ahem, cultural Marxists at the top. Spielberg, David Geffen, Katzenberg, the people who run Google, who run Facebook — this is today’s hierarchy.
It’s not about having a hierarchy, it’s about who’s at the top. If anything, today’s hierarchy is even worse than enforced equality would be, given who’s at the top right now.
Mr. Conservative on 10 May 2012 at 1:47 am #
“the juice corrupted art!”
sorry but art was corrupted way before OJ Simpson was even born!
thaddeus on 10 May 2012 at 2:53 pm #
False. They comprise the only hierarchy that matters. The only hierarchy that matters is the one that governs what the culture puts out, which in turn controls people’s minds. Today, those who control Hollywood and, more broadly, the media and the entertainment industries, control what people think.
More ad hominem assertions, and therefore invalid.
Very well, then. And how is a hierarchy comprised of radical traditionalists to be instituted? There is one, single way that we know works, because it worked for our enemies — the “long march through the institutions” and the resulting control of media and entertainment.
Even a political takeover, like 1933 Germany, can only happen if the people have been sufficiently groomed for it via the culture. Given that the culture today is so vehemently anti-traditionalist, a political takeover is not possible.
That only leaves the Gramsci approach.
Kevin MacDonald puts it succinctly: “Get rich. Buy media.” That is the only formula that can work.
RedPhillips on 10 May 2012 at 8:57 pm #
Sav, again you speak in riddles and code. Just tell us your plan. We are not mind readers.
thaddeus on 10 May 2012 at 10:55 pm #
That’s it, then. No point talking to you. Just an ad hominem troll after all.
Sure you do . . .
Not Libertarian on 12 May 2012 at 4:44 pm #
I couldn’t care less about doing something “for my race” because I’m not a delusional lunatic who sees everything through the prism of race.
Not Libertarian on 13 May 2012 at 4:34 pm #
And I believe you are the product of a botched abortion, likely from the womb of a prostitute.
Bruce on 14 May 2012 at 4:44 pm #
“You can build a “Alt. Right” based on paganism or racialism or death metal music but it would not be conservative, not in the least.”
Depends on what you mean by “racialism.” If, by racialism, you mean trying to save whites from demographic destruction, then I disagree with you. This type of racialism is the most basic conservatism.
From the late John Attarian:
http://www.toqonline.com/archives/v4n1/TOQv4n1Attarian.pdf (including a quote from Russell Kirk):
“Being all about conserving, a true conservatism also assigns a high priority
to preserving national sovereignty, ethnic and racial identity, and demographic
continuity. Indeed, preserving identity is, as Russell Kirk observed, a bedrock
imperative:
“It seems to be a law governing all life, from the unicellular inanimate forms to the
highest human cultures, that every living organism of every genus and species
endeavors, above all else, to preserve its identity. Whatever lives…resists with the
whole of its power the endeavors of competing forms of life to assimilate it to their
substance and mode. Every living thing, as part of a species, prefers even death as
an individual, to extinction as a distinct species…. We ought not to be surprised
that men and nations resist desperately—perhaps unreasoningly—any attempt
to assimilate their character to some other body social. This resistance is the first
law of their being, extending below the level of consciousness.”
.
.
.
.
Just what are these “conservatives”
trying to conserve? The continuity of a people’s biological identity is one of the
most fundamental continuities there is. If this rock-bottom continuity does not
interest them, what continuity possibly could?”