Quote:Richard Spencer was euphoric the night Donald Trump was elected president.
"When it happened, I thought I might have been dreaming," he said.
Richard Spencer, 38, a Dallas native and a graduate of St. Mark's School of Texas prep school, now lives in Montana.
Spencer, a 38-year-old Dallas native and graduate of St. Mark's School of Texas prep school, is a key intellectual leader of the alternative right, a label he coined in 2008 to describe the radical conservative movement defined by white nationalism and a fervent resistance to multiculturalism and globalism.
In his mind, Trump "is the first step, the first stage towards identity politics for white people."
"That is something major," Spencer said Tuesday night. "He's not your father's conservative. He's not in this to promote free markets or neoconservative foreign politics or to protect Israel, for that matter. He's in this to protect his people. He's in this to protect the historic American nation."
During the interview or shortly after it, Spencer's Twitter account was suspended, along with those of several other prominent alt-right figures. He called the suspensions an act of "corporate Stalinism" carried out to mollify accusations that social media was responsible for Trump's election -- an analysis with which he agrees.
"This is just a sign that we have power," he says in a video titled "The Knight of the Long Knives," posted shortly after the "purge."
Over the course of Trump's presidential campaign, Spencer and others who championed the president-elect as an "alt-right hero" have blitzed out of the dark corners of the internet and into the national spotlight.
They have attracted thousands of new followers through their use of social media, memes and the internet more broadly.
They have been labeled as racists, anti-Semites, xenophobes and bigots. They're self-identified "deplorables" who claim they've been silenced by mainstream conservatism for far too long.
And if you ask them, Trump's election on Nov. 9 made them the "vanguards" of American conservatism. In short, they believe they just hijacked the GOP. An attendee at a Trump rally in New Hampshire holds a sign featuring Pepe the Frog, a cartoon tied to anti-Semitism and racism that has become an unofficial mascot of the alt-right.
(Damon Winter/The New York Times)
"They are a conscious repudiation of the American conservative movement," said Dan Morenoff, a 42-year-old lawyer from North Dallas and former head of the Republican Jewish Coalition chapter in North Texas. "They affirmatively reject the American ideals that conservatives have tried to conserve over the last 50 years. But I think a better description for them is barbarians. They are barbarians who would replace American culture with an ethno-national state."
The Southern Poverty Law Center labeled Spencer an "academic racist" who takes a "quasi-intellectual approach to white separatism."
Spencer prefers to call himself an "identitarian" but will accept white nationalist. He is adamant that he's not a white supremacist, which implies a desire for whites to rule over nonwhites. Such a hierarchy would be "disastrous," he said.
He's the editor of Radix Journal, an online magazine focused on alt-right theory, and he serves as director and president of the National Policy Institute, an alt-right think tank he plans to use as a vessel to push Trump further in the direction of anti-war, anti-immigration and, most importantly, pro-white policies.
He envisions a white ethno-state utopia, devoid of black people, Muslims, Jews, Asians or anyone else without a common European heritage and culture. He believes white people in America have become rootless wanderers, displaced by immigrants who are now waging a kind of proxy war against the European cultural foundation upon which the U.S. was built.
"Look, I care about my people more than I care about others," Spencer said. "It's very simple. What form that takes, I don't know. But I don't believe in equality. I don't care about everyone. I don't care about the world. I want to fight for my people first."
He says he holds no animosity for people of color and other minorities. In fact, he said he sympathizes with their plight in America and understands "why they never felt part of this country."
But his sympathies don't override what he believes is the inherent, genetically motivated animosity different races hold toward each other. Because of this natural hate, he believes walls will ultimately be more successful in promoting peace than bridges will be.
These views have some local Jewish community members "horrified," but Morenoff said no one has any reason to be afraid. The alt-right may support Trump, but the general sentiment in the American community is far from the hate he says they espouse. He is however "preaching constant vigilance to people -- wherever they are on the political spectrum."
Other critics, like Denton activist Deborah Armintor, consider the movement a fantasy that is no less frightening for its flawed philosophy.
"They call themselves the alt-right, but I see that as a code word for white supremacism," said Armintor.
Armintor, a faculty member in the English department and the Jewish and Israel Studies program at the University of North Texas, ran for an at-large seat on the Denton City Council this year but lost.
She says she was "paralyzed" for two days after Trump's election but has since "snapped back into action" and will resist the "new vision for America" represented by the alt-right, which she says the president-elect "glommed on to."
Armintor said the entire foundation of the white nationalist philosophy is flawed and a "complete fantasy." North America was originally settled by Native Americans, and it was only after Europeans forcibly removed them from the land, and introduced slavery to the new continent, that European culture flourished.
In her mind, America has always been and will be a multicultural nation, albeit one with a complicated and painful history.
"I don't have to make a case or plea for my existence or any of my friends' existences. We're here," she said. "It's the white supremacist, it's those people who have to explain their position. They're the ones who have to explain how they can dare to say these things in America after the Holocaust and genocides all over the world because of precisely these attitudes."
Spencer currently resides in the resort town of Whitefish, Montana, in what was described as a "Bavarian-style mansion" in a profile in Mother Jones. He was born in Massachusetts but moved to the Preston Hollow neighborhood of Dallas when he was about 2 years old.
"It was a fairly idyllic, suburban childhood," Spencer said with a laugh. "I remember riding bikes around the neighborhood, and so on. I guess you could say I lived in a bubble to a certain extent, like a lot of the kids in that area. But it was very nice."
He attended St. Mark's School of Texas, one of the most prestigious all-boys prep schools in the Southwest. He described himself as an average student who didn't stand out among the bright minds surrounding him. He played varsity football and baseball. He directed a minimalist stage play titled K2about two men stuck on a mountain 27,000 feet above sea level. Richard Spencer in his eighth-grade photo from the St. Mark's School of Texas
(Vernon Bryant/Staff Photographer)
"You would've never guessed that I would become a political radical," he said. "When I was a kid in Dallas -- even a young man in Dallas -- I was not a political radical. I don't think there was anything in my childhood that inspired me to go down this path. If anything, I went down this path in spite of my background."
Spencer said his father, a Dallas-based ophthalmologist, and mother are registered Republicans who aren't passionate about politics and have "mainstream" conservative opinions and morals. He described them as "standard Episcopalian Dallasites."
"Their political beliefs are not mine," Spencer said. "I'm a bit of a black sheep."
According to Mother Jones, Spencer was friends with the only black student in his class at St. Mark's, John Lewis. Lewis said he never thought Spencer was a racist, but another student told Mother Jones they remembered Spencer making "conservative, racially laced comments."
Spencer dismissed the claim, saying he didn't come to hold his radical views until college. He earned his undergraduate degree at the University of Virginia, where he double-majored in English and music.
During this period, he was influenced by the writings of Friedrich Nietzsche and Jared Taylor, a founding figure in the American white nationalist movement and editor of American Renaissance.
"I think my personality was open to these ideas," he said. "I think it was a combination of nature and nurture. I was who I was, even as a child."
He later studied humanities at the University of Chicago and then pursued a doctoral degree at Duke University for two years before he was offered at job at The American Conservative magazine and dropped out.
He was eventually fired because of his radical views, and in December 2009, he started AlternativeRight.com, which eventually became Radix Journal. In 2011 he became president of the National Policy Institute and has used it as a platform to promote his white nationalist ideas ever since. Donald Trump and his running mate Mike Pence celebrate on election night at the New York Hilton Midtown in New York.
(MANDEL NGAN/AFP/Getty Images)
The day after Trump was elected president, Spencer streamed a video on Periscope of himself describing his feelings about the results and what they represented. Viewers thanked him for laying the groundwork for Trump's election. But he humbly deflected the congratulatory remarks.
"This really was one of the greatest moments of my life," he said. "It's hard to explain how enthusiastic I was last night. This is what I've been living for."
Days after Trump was elected, he appointed Steve Bannon, the former executive of Brietbart News who is credited with guiding Trump's campaign to victory, as his chief strategist.
The appointment drew heavy criticism because Breitbart has often been deemed a mouthpiece for the alt-right movement and white nationalist writers. Many Democratic legislators called for Trump to rescind the offer.
Spencer, on the other hand, welcomed the appointment and said it was the "best possible position" for Bannon in the Trump White House.
"Bannon will answer directly to Trump and focus on the big picture, and not get lost in the weeds," he tweeted. "Bannon is not a 'chief of staff,' which requires a 'golden retriever' personality. He'll be freed up to chart Trump's macro trajectory."
Armintor and Morenoff, two 42-year-old professionals from the Dallas area, are on opposite ends of the political spectrum but have both met Trump's election with far more reserve. And they both stand in direct, aggressive opposition to the alt-right and white nationalism.
Armintor said she remains horrified but motivated to work at a local level to promote civic engagement and unity.
Morenoff said the alt-right's rise is "deeply troubling," but he will continue to scrutinize the executive branch.
"The alt-right is very happy about the election of Donald Trump," he said. "They have adopted him as a mascot, but that doesn't mean their feelings are mutual."
While he doesn't know if alt-right figures will be satisfied or disappointed by a Trump presidency, he recognizes this moment in American history as an opportunity to think critically about limited government.
"If the election of one political figure has the power to scare you this much, you should join with conservative groups to make sure the powers of the executive branch are not so strong that they make you feel afraid," he said.
As I've said before: I'd like to think that this is just the result of increased social media presence and loud mouths who "think" Trump is one of them, or is at least opening the door for them.
I hope that's all it is. Because this guy and the people like him are cray-cray.
Your anger and ego will always reveal your true self.
Quote:'Hail Trump!': White Nationalists Salute the President Elect
“Hail Trump, hail our people, hail victory!”
That’s how Richard B. Spencer saluted more than 200 attendees on Saturday, gathered at the Ronald Reagan Building in Washington, D.C., for the annual conference of the National Policy Institute, which describes itself as “an independent organization dedicated to the heritage, identity, and future of people of European descent in the United States, and around the world.”
Spencer has popularized the term “alt-right” to describe the movement he leads. Spencer has said his dream is “a new society, an ethno-state that would be a gathering point for all Europeans,” and has called for “peaceful ethnic cleansing.”
For most of the day, a parade of speakers discussed their ideology in relatively anodyne terms, putting a presentable face on their agenda. But after dinner, when most journalists had already departed, Spencer rose and delivered a speech to his followers dripping with anti-Semitism, and leaving no doubt as to what he actually seeks. He referred to the mainstream media as “Lügenpresse,” a term he said he was borrowing from “the original German”; the Nazis used the word to attack their critics in the press.
“America was until this past generation a white country designed for ourselves and our posterity,” Spencer said. “It is our creation, it is our inheritance, and it belongs to us.”
The audience offered cheers, applause, and enthusiastic Nazi salutes.
Here is the video, excerpted from an Atlantic documentary profile of Spencer that will premiere in December 2016.
I'm sure this means nothing at all...
Your anger and ego will always reveal your true self.
He railed against Jews and, with a smile, quoted Nazi propaganda in the original German. America, he said, belonged to white people, whom he called the "children of the sun," a race of conquerors and creators who had been marginalized but now, in the era of President-elect Donald J. Trump, were "awakening to their own identity."
As he finished, several audience members had their arms outstretched in a Nazi salute. When Mr. Spencer, or perhaps another person standing near him at the front of the room — it was not clear who — shouted, "Heil the people! Heil victory," the room shouted it back.
But as the night wore on and most reporters had gone home, the language changed.
Mr. Spencer’s after-dinner speech began with a polemic against the “mainstream media,” before he briefly paused. “Perhaps we should refer to them in the original German?” he said. The audience immediately screamed back, “Lügenpresse,” reviving a Nazi-era word that means “lying press.”
Mr. Spencer suggested that the news media had been critical of Mr. Trump throughout the campaign in order to protect Jewish interests. He mused about the political commentators who gave Mr. Trump little chance of winning.
“One wonders if these people are people at all, or instead soulless golem,” he said, referring to a Jewish fable about the golem, a clay giant that a rabbi brings to life to protect the Jews.
Mr. Trump’s election, Mr. Spencer said, was “the victory of will,” a phrase that echoed the title of the most famous Nazi-era propaganda film. But Mr. Spencer then mentioned, with a smile, Theodor Herzl, the Zionist leader who advocated a Jewish homeland in Israel, quoting his famous pronouncement, “If we will it, it is no dream.”
Some were hesitant to call a certain poster a white supremacist when he started bringing the alt-right's toxic rhetoric here. Now we all have it right here in front of us, and will be seeing more of it for years to come.
I think we need to go ahead and start calling these people what they are, i.e. Nazis. They don't need media-friendly names like alt-right or white nationalist to make them marketable to the general public. Just call them what they are. I'm not sure how many more red flags we need here.
Thank goodness there's a new target for the left to vilify and rally against. For a while there it looked like they might be running out of perps, and if you're going to have a victim it's just better to have a perp.
The "rise" of this group may seem convenient, but I'm sure their numbers are very, very large and the threat YUGE.
(11-22-2016, 09:12 PM)JustWinBaby Wrote: Thank goodness there's a new target for the left to vilify and rally against. For a while there it looked like they might be running out of perps, and if you're going to have a victim it's just better to have a perp.
The "rise" of this group may seem convenient, but I'm sure their numbers are very, very large and the threat YUGE.
Interestingly there was a civil war on Facebook (literally brother against brother) as my cousins duked it out over whether Trump supporters should condemn such things as the heil video and other alt-right stuff "rising".
One said it would be nice if his supporters at least said this stuff was awful and the other said he didn't vote for Trump because he's a racist and it degraded from there.
Sadly they won't be together for Thanksgiving this year or I would have stopped in and filmed it! LOL!
Your anger and ego will always reveal your true self.
(11-22-2016, 04:54 PM)samhain Wrote: I think we need to go ahead and start calling these people what they are, i.e. Nazis. They don't need media-friendly names like alt-right or white nationalist to make them marketable to the general public. Just call them what they are. I'm not sure how many more red flags we need here.
Yup we're doing them a big favor by not calling them what they really are. Just helping them forge a new identity.
(11-15-2016, 09:20 PM)Mike M (the other one) Wrote: Holderdo, do you think a man making fun of a woman having a shot in public is sexism?
Just discovered I oversaw that question.
I also do not quite understand it. A man makes fun of a woman having a shot in public...? I guess there's a certain event you have in mind here that I do not know about?
- If that is not the case... ehm... I would go with... "no"?
(11-15-2016, 04:31 PM)JustWinBaby Wrote: No different than the New Black Panthers or Nation of Islam celebrating Obama's victory. I mean, wow, there are hate groups in the US and occasionally someone they like wins an election. Another shocker I never expected to see in my lifetime.
I never even heard of the alt-right until a few months ago. I guess the KKK and it's 4000 remaining members was just too tough of a sell.
What about the 113 other white nationalist groups? The Stormfront website has 300,000 members. Thanks to Trump, everyone has now heard of the alt right, and they have a message for millions of Americans tired of political correctness and places for them to meet like-minded individuals online.
The man who has helped mainstream them will be Trump's most trusted adviser.
Was there ever a similar figure with ties to the Panthers or N of Islam in Obama's White House? Did Obama ever say he had never heard of Farrakhan? I do remember Obama had no trouble immediately denouncing Farrakhan's racism and anti-semitism --words immediately from his own mouth, not from a surrogate, offered days later under pressure from the press.
So far as I know, the New Black Panthers and Nation of Islam endorsed Obama but did not "celebrate" his victory with parties and victory salutes. They were glad he was elected but understood he was not specifically "their guy."
Historians should remember the 2016 election as the year of false equivalencies.
(11-22-2016, 04:54 PM)samhain Wrote: I think we need to go ahead and start calling these people what they are, i.e. Nazis. They don't need media-friendly names like alt-right or white nationalist to make them marketable to the general public. Just call them what they are. I'm not sure how many more red flags we need here.
I don't think all white nationalists are Nazis, though. Nazis subordinated the individual to the state. Few American rightists will do that, even though they embrace the racism. Some just want to return to the racism of the founding fathers and their colonial small government.
Also insisting on the Nazi label obscures the growing numbers of people who find race explains unemployment and falling wages, and so want "America first" policies and to take the government back from those American-born non-Americans called liberals and the blacks perceived to depend on their policies for handouts. Many of these people would insist they are not racists and (rightly) not Nazis.
(11-15-2016, 08:17 PM)hollodero Wrote: Yeah he did, it's just that it doesn't work that way. A latent racist whose emotions are now set free on the back of the Trump movement doesn't simply walk his racism back because Trump walks things back. It's still there on the surface, and at this point it's society that has to address this, not Trump. He can even condemn it at this point. This particular segment of voters would still believe he's on their side and just has to play the game because the ultra-left has taken over everywhere to subvert the country's greatness or whatever.
HE might walk back. They don't.
Excellent point. Verbally walking it back means little after the fact.
David Duke has already noted that Trump must say what he has to say to get elected, meaning he cannot openly endorse racist groups, but will work towards their long term goals--like debrowning America under "non-racist" policies like deportation and Muslim bans. Thus the alt right will not feel betrayed when Trump reluctantly, eventually "denounces" them. They know he is still their guy.
(11-23-2016, 04:47 PM)Dill Wrote: Historians should remember the 2016 election as the year of false equivalencies.
Yes, they should note that 2016 was the year the Democratic party's false equivalencies was rejected by voters at every level of government.
Most of America is tired of the Dem's identity politics. But some haven't figured that out yet, and still cling to that narrative that Trump was only elected by racists and propping up the Alt-right as the new boogeyman.
The Alt-right is becoming a catch-all for any group who's agenda doesn't align with the left. They're going to label opponents as racist, and lump them all in. Apparently they are starting to get a little lazy with their divide & conquer strategy.
(11-23-2016, 05:46 PM)JustWinBaby Wrote: Yes, they should note that 2016 was the year the Democratic party's false equivalencies was rejected by voters at every level of government.
Most of America is tired of the Dem's identity politics. But some haven't figured that out yet, and still cling to that narrative that Trump was only elected by racists and propping up the Alt-right as the new boogeyman.
The Alt-right is becoming a catch-all for any group who's agenda doesn't align with the left. They're going to label opponents as racist, and lump them all in. Apparently they are starting to get a little lazy with their divide & conquer strategy.
Which false equivalencies were rejected by voters?
When a quarter of the electorate votes for the wall and the Muslim ban, "America" is hardly tired of identity politics
The Alt-right is becoming a catch-all for white nationalists who find their agenda mirrored in Trump's policies.
All they do is stick up for their race and then liberals want to hang labels on them.
Why can't we just put the divisions and name calling behind us all live together under Republican policies?
It was swept under the rug by the bought and paid for media, but Obama was/is a radical with his association with Jeremiah Wright.
That man is a racist and helped create the rift that exists, today.
(11-25-2016, 12:42 PM)Rotobeast Wrote: It was swept under the rug by the bought and paid for media, but Obama was/is a radical with his association with Jeremiah Wright.
That man is a racist and helped create the rift that exists, today.
Anyway....
When does Trump get his Nobel Prize ?
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Sorry you lost in 2008. Get over it. Never happened. (Did I do that right?)
Your anger and ego will always reveal your true self.
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