What are the origins of the alt-right? Hint: It's not as new as you think

[DonViejo]

White supremacy is rooted in centuries of white civilization, not a deviation from established norms: Part 1 of 2

ANIS SHIVANI
11.05.2017•6:00 AM

One way of conceptualizing so-called far right movements since the end of World War II has been to marginalize them sociologically, and view them as “cults.” British social scientist Colin Campbell is a prime exponent of this viewpoint, as he articulates the culture and institutions of what he calls the “cultic milieu,” though he is smart enough to also pose almost unanswerable questions such as these:

How does it (the cultic milieu) manage to survive in face of the continuing disapproval and even outright hostility of the organizations repressing cultural orthodoxy? Through what channels are new cultural items introduced into the milieu? What are the circumstances which facilitate the transformation of deviant cultural items into variant or even dominant ones? What general functions, in fact, does the milieu fulfill?

Campbell rather tamely concludes that “we lack the information to answer such questions,” and no wonder, because it seems to me that an unsustainable normative judgment is implied in the very idea of separating cultural orthodoxy from cultural deviancy, i.e., the cult.

To call a tendency deviant — as we might be tempted to do with the alt-right — is already to discount the responsibility of the orthodoxy in breeding the deviancy. Could it be that “new cultural items” are introduced into the cultic milieu through the agency of the orthodoxy to the extent that the cultic milieu becomes a useless concept? How, in fact, do we separate the dominant and the variant? When the president of the United States is in large part sympathetic to the so-called cultic deviancy, and when he is in fact backed by nearly half the population, then the framework really falls apart.

more
https://www.salon.com/2017/11/05/what-are-the-origins-of-the-alt-right-hint-its-not-as-new-as-you-think/

[brewens]

1. I had a woman about 26 years old use the term "jigaboo" at work. That was part of the reason

she was fired. I marveled at that one. That is an archaic enough racial slur that I was surprised a kid that age would have ever heard it. She is from a small town in central Idaho. I'd say she must have gotten that from an older racist relative or family friend.

Most of those old Jim Crow era racists might be dead, but they had kids. They taught their kids their hate before they died, now it's maybe their great grand kids getting the lessons handed down. It's why we have the assholes with the confederate flags. The message is clear. "We'd put you right back in the cotton fields if we ever get the chance!"

[MichMary]

2. There's a good chance she had no idea what it meant

Years ago I worked with a woman who was the queen of malaprops. She once talked about a crowd at her kid's football game being so excited that they were jumping around "like a bunch of zombies."

So, when she describes a bunch of people acting like jigaboos, I realized she had no idea it was a racial slur. She clearly just thought it was a general derogatory term--like idiots. Or clowns.

[brewens]

3. The context was her objecting to rap music on the radio. She had also previously

read some crap off her phone about Obama being a Kenyan. Pretty much nails it that she is racist. If it was really just all ignorance, she gets to grow some brain cells and get a clue somewhere else!

[MichMary]

4. The context really

makes a difference! Good riddance to her!!