Wednesday 7 September 2016

Argument tactics of the Alt-Right

To follow up on my post from last month about the Alt-Right, this post will focus on the troll tactics used by the Alt-Right during online discussions. While I wrote a significant amount this aspect of the Alt-Right in that piece, I wish to cover it some more. In addition, this post will be the first "work in progress", in that while I will submit it now, I will expand it later; I feel there is more to research about this but I want some content here now.

I should also note that the tactics used by the Alt-Right also overlap those used by the "anti-SJW" crowd; however, as the Alt-Right is by its nature "anti-SJW", for the purposes of this post they are treated as the same entity.

Keywords:

Frequent words used by the Alt-Right to silence opposition are:

"Snowflake"
"Hurt your feelings"
"Trigger(ed)"
"Safe space"
"Sensitive" 
"Cuck"
"White Knight"
"How dare you assume..."
"My soggy knee"

Their uses of "trigger(ed)" and "safe space" are always in a mocking manner, in that whenever an Alt-Right individual is the subject of criticism, they will declare that their opponents have been triggered and in need of a safe space. "Snowflake" is a derisive term for anyone who disagrees with them and they often ridicule others for being "(over)sensitive".

"Cuck" usually refers to conservative-leaning people whom the Alt-Right considers to be sell outs or weak. An example of this is a Republican in the United States who is Christian and, as a part of their Christianity, adopts children from other countries. As the Alt-Right is centered around white supremacy, this sort of person might as well be on the Left, as they are bringing foreigners into the country. "White Knight" usually refers to a man who speaks up for women but it is also used to dismiss a white person who stands up for non-whites.

"How dare you assume..." is a mockery against people who identify as a demographic group they were not born as; this is usually an attack on the transgender and genderqueer communities, such as people who were born male but change sex and identify as female or those who don't identify as any gender. This form of attack usually descends into absurdity: for example, if you suggest to an Alt-Right individual that they as a white non-transgendered man from a high-income background might not understand the perspective of minority groups from poor backgrounds, such an individual often replies with "How dare you assume my identity! I identify as a black, lesbian, disabled, vegan and Muslim transwoman* who is a Disney Princess and was born on Neptune! YOU NEPTUNE-HATING, DISNEYPHOBIC RACIST!"- even though the person obviously does not at all identify with such a demographic and is using them as a shield.

(*Transwomen who are black, Muslim, disabled, vegan and lesbian are not an absurdity in themselves as they do exist and they should not be used as a punching bag for trolls. By "absurd", I was referring to the behaviour of the Alt-Right individual(s).)

As for "my soggy knee", that's a dismissive play on the word "misogyny". Alt-Right individuals sometimes deride users of the word by talking about "my soggy knee(s)".

Deflections:

This is a placeholder; I will expand later.

Feigned ignorance:

See previous section. 

Conclusion:

That's it for now, so the conclusion is currently limited. Again, I will be expanding the post at a later time and will note any major changes to it.

2 comments:

  1. I always find it funny when conservatives says the Democrats are racist because back in the 19th century Democrats (generally) were the conservatives and Republicans were the liberals. We're like the only country where the main left party is blue and the conservative party is red.

    They really want black people and latinos to vote for them because generally are more conservative on social issues on religion and LGBT rights. But racist polices makes almost all of them forget about social policy when it comes to voting.

    I wouldn't vote for a party that hated me for things I can't change about myself.

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  2. Yeah, I've that one *soooooo* many times I've lost count. I've had to explain that the parties changed ideologies over time, so it's the ideology that's responsible rather than the actual party name.

    Until the racist element of the Republican Party either vanishes or moves off to its own party, they will continue to epically lose non-white votes.

    A lot of people seem happy to do that, though!

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